
Glass __ 
Book- 



1638 



Founders' Day 



1888 



New Haven, Conn. 



PROCEEDINGS 



IN COMMEMORATION 



OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE 



Town of New Haven 



April 2STH, 1888. 



^. 



THE FOUNDERS OF THIS TOWN, 
, LANDING NEAR THIS SPOT 

ASSEMBLED HERE 

FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD, 

ON THEIR FIRST SUNDAY. 

APRIL 25. 1638. 



A granite tablet, a cut of which is printed above, was inserted by order 
of the committee in the west wall of the brick store at the corner of 
College and George streets. 

The oak tree, beneath whose shade the first public Christian worship in 
New Haven was observed, is said by tradition to have stood about twenty 
feet north of George street and fort3'-five feet east of College street. 



. \N V- \^ v^ 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The first steps towards the celebration of the 250th anniver- 
sary of the settlement of New Haven were taken at a special 
town meeting held in Loomis' Temple of Music, December 
22d, 1887, previous notice in legal form having been given. 
At this meeting the following votes were passed : 

Voted, That the sum of one thousand dollars be and is 
hereby appropriated from the treasury of the town for the 
purpose of properly celebrating the 250th anniversary of the 
settlement of the town of New Haven, if in the judgment of 
the Board of Selectmen they should deem it best ; provided 
that the Selectmen enquire into the legality of expending 
such sum. 

Voted, That said sum be expended at the discretion of the 
Selectmen, and that said celebration should be of a civic and 
historical, rather than of a military character. 

In accordance with this action, a public hearing of citizens 
interested in the celebration was held February ist, 1888, in 
response to an invitation published by the selectmen in the 
daily papers. At a second hearing, held February 24th, those 
present voted to appoint the following committee to co-operate 
with the selectmen in managing the celebration : 

From the Selectmen — James Reynolds, George M. White. 

From the Chamber of Commerce — Henry G. Lewis, Henry 
S. Dawson, N. D. Sperry, Max Abler, James D. Dewell, 
James P. Pigott. 

From the New Have7i Colony Historical Society — Thomas R. 
Trowbridge, Johnson T. Platt, Ruel P. Cowles, Simeon 
E. Baldwin. 

From. Yale University — Franklin B, Dexter. 

From the Board of Education — Horace Day. 



Fro7n the Grand Army of the Republic — Lewis B. Brown, E. E. 
TiSDALE, David S. Thomas, Nathan Easterbrook, Jr. 

From the New Haven Congregational Club — Justin E, Twitchell. 

Fro7n the HoJ>ki?is Grammar School — George L. Fox. 

From the Citizens of the Town — Henry B. Harrison, L. S. 
Punderson. 

Various sub-committees to represent the different interests 
involved were subsequently appointed, and additions were 
made to the general committee from time to time. This com- 
mittee as finally constituted was as follows : 

JAMES REYNOLDS, Chairman. 
NATHAN EASTERBROOK, Jr., Secretary. 



Max Adler, 
Charles W. Allen, 
E. D. Bassett, 
Simeon E. Baldwin, 
T. Attwater Barnes 
William A. Beers, 
J. J. Brennan, 
Isaac E. Brown, 
Lewis B. Brown, 
E. E. Bradley, 
John C. Bradley, 
Henry T. Blake, 
Charles F. Bollmann, 
Samuel Bolton, 
Caleb B. Bowers, 
William H. Carmalt, 
Hiram Camp, 
R. H. Chittenden, 
Ruel p. Cowles, 
Daniel Colwell, 
Edwin W. Cooper, 



Frank E. Craig, 
M. C. Cremin, 
Henry S. Dawson, 
Horace Day, 
Franklin B. Dexter, 
Clarence Deming, 
James D. Dewell, 
George L. Dickerman, 
Edward F. Durand, 
H. W. Durand, 
Timothy Dwight, 
John E. Earle, 
B. E. Elmstedt, 
Charles H. Farnam, 
Henry W. Farnam, 
Louis Feldman, 
George L. Fox, 
Simeon J. Fox, 
George H. Ford, 
Charles Fleischnek, 
W. J, Fuller. 



James Gallagher, Jr., 
Henry C. Goodwin, 
J. P. Goodhart, 
W. L. Gunning, 
Henry B. Harrison, 
A. C. Hendrick, 
Henry L. Hill, 
Conrad Hofacker, 
Frank Hugo, 
Alfred Hughes, 
Charles R. Ingersoll, 
L. H. Johnson, 
Albert H. Kellam, 
Ernest Klenke, 
Frank T. Lee, 
Henry G. Lewis, 
Augustus E. Lines, 
Henry W. Mansfield, 
Patrick McKenna, 
Ezra P. Merriam, 
Charles G. Merriman, 
S. E. Merwin, 
James T. Moran, 
George N. Moses, 
James T. Mullen, 
s. m. munson, 
Charles A. Nettleton, 
Charles N. Nott, 
m. c. o'conner, 
Henry Peck, 
Henry F. Peck, 



James P. Pigott, 
Johnson T. Platt, 
J. D. Plunkett, 
L. S. Punderson, 
William Rebman. 
John B. Robertson, 
William C. Robinson, 
J. P. Richards, 
John Ruff, 
Paul Russo, 
Charles W. Scranton, 
C. Sleicher, 
Stephen R. Smith, 
N. D. Sperry, 
Horace H. Strong, 
W. F. Sternberg, 
Peter Terhune, 
David S. Thomas, 

E. E. Tisdale, 
Charles H. Townsend, 
Thomas R. Trowbridge, 
Morris F. Tyler, 
Justin E. Twitchell. 

F. H. Waldron, 
George M. White, 
William W. White, 
James D. Whitmore, 
Eli Whitney, Jr., 
Theodore D. Woolsey, 
Samuel A. York, 
Maier Zunder. 



The following sub-committees had charge of the details 
of the celebration : 



FINANCE. 
ELI WHITNEY, Jr., Chairman. 
Thomas R. Trowbridge, Max Adler, 

Charles H. Townsend, Patrick McKenna. 

INVITATIONS. 
HENRY G. LEWIS, Chairman. 
Henry B. Harrison, Johnson T. Platt, 

Morris F. Tyler, Clarence Deming. 

YALE UNIVERSITY. 

TIMOTHY DWIGHT, Chairman. 
Franklin B. Dexter, Henry W. Farnam, 

William C. Robinson, William H. Carmalt. 

CITY GOVERNMENT. 

SAMUEL A. YORK. Chairman. 
James D. Whitmore, James T. Moran, 

George L. Dickerman, Charles Fleischner. 

MILITARY AND FIRE DEPARTMENT. 

E. E. BRADLEY, Chairman. 
A. C. Hendrick, Charles H. Farnam, 

H. H. Strong, Frank T. Lee. 

CIVIC SOCIETIES. 

A. H. KELLAM, Chairman. 
James T. Mullen, Frank Hugo, 

E. F. Durand, L. H. Johnson, 

Conrad Hofacker, H. W. Durand, 

Frank E. Craig, Henry C. Goodwin, 

M. C. Cremin, William Rebman, 

Samuel Bolton, Henry L. Hill, 

Daniel Colwell, William F. Sternberg, 

Peter Terhune, James Gallagher, Jr., 

J. P. Richards, Paul Russo, 

M. C. O'Conner, George N. Moses, 

W. J. Fuller. 



SCHOOLS. 

HORACE DAY, Chairman. 
J. D. Plunkett, Maier Zunder, 

Henry F. Peck, George L. Fox. 



ORATION, PUBLIC EXERCISES AND HALL. 

JAMES REYNOLDS, Chairman. 
Charles R. Ingersoll, N. D. Sperry, 

Thomas R. Trowbridge, James D. Dewell. 

MEDALS AND MEMORIALS. 

HENRY T. BLAKE, Chairman. 
S. E. Baldwin, N. D. Sperry, 

E. D. Bassett, Horace Day, 

John E. Earle, Thomas R. Trowbridge, 

R. H. Chittenden. 

PRINTING AND BADGES. 
D. S. THOMAS, Chairman. 
Charles W. Scranton, George H. Ford, 

Simeon J. Fox, Ezra P. Merriam. 

PROCESSION, MARSHAL, MUSIC AND 
LINE OF MARCH. 

S. E. MERWIN, Chairman. 
S. R. Smith, George M. White, 

T. Attwater Barnes, Charles F. Bollmann, 

Horace Day. 

CARRIAGES. 
FRED. H. WALDRON, Chairman. 
Charles Fleischner, Charles H. R. Nott. 



REVISION AND PUBLICATION. 

HORACE DAY, Chairman. 
H. W. Farnam, James D. Whitmore. 

LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL. 

JOHN C. BRADLEY, Chairman. 
William W. White, Henry Peck, 

Augustus E. Lines, Charles G. Merriman, 

Henry W. Mansfield, Charles W. Allen. 

It was soon felt that the original appropriation made by the 
town would not be sufficient to defray the expenses of the 
celebration. Upon the recommendation of the committee, a 
special town meeting was accordingly called for March 15th, 
1888, and an additional appropriation of two thousand dollars 
was then made. At a meeting of the committee held March 
29th, it was voted that the day of the celebration be named 
" Founders' Day." 

The Committee on Procession had originally appointed 
General S. R. Smith as chief marshal of the day. The death 
of Mrs. Smith, however, made it impossible for him to act, 
and Major T. Attwater Barnes, who had been appointed 
as General Smith's chief of staff, was requested to act as 
marshal in his place. 

No medal was struck by the general committee to commem- 
orate the celebration, but Mr. Theiler, of Meriden, was author- 
ized to make one as a matter of private enterprise. 

The general committee held in all eleven meetings, the 
full records of which have been copied in a book and placed 
by Mr. Easterbrook, the secretary of the committee, in the 
library of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 

The landing of the earliest settlers having taken place on 
the 15th of April, 1638, O. S., it was decided to hold the cele- 
bration on the corresponding day of the new calendar, that is 
to say on the 25th of April. 

The official exercises consisted of a procession in the morn- 
ing and commemorative exercises in the Center Church in the 
afternoon. As the school children were largely represented 
in tlie procession, a leaflet was prepared at the request of the 
Committee by Mr. Horace Day, secretary of the Board of 



Education, giving the leading facts witli regard to the various 
places of historical interest about the town, which were indi- 
cated by appropriate inscriptions. Twenty thousand copies 
of this leaflet were printed for gratuitous distribution. 

The former pupils of Mr. John E. Lovell's Lancasterian 
School, after taking part in the procession, held a reunion, 
which, though not a part of the official programme, seems to 
possess sufficient interest to warrant us in appending a brief 
account of it to this pamphlet. 

Finally, as the tax-payers have a right to know how the 
money which they voted has been spent by the committee, we 
have also printed the report of the treasurer. 

These various topics will be found below in the following 
order : 

(i.) Leaflet for School Children ; 
(2.) Order of Procession and Line of March ; 
(3.) Order of Exercises in Center Church ; 
(4.) Oration, by Henry T. Blake, Esq. ; 
(5.) Reunion of the Lancasterian School. 
(6.) Treasurer's Report. 




FOUNDERS' DAY, 

April 2^th, 163S— April 2^1/1, 1888. 



THE 2soth ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE SETTLEMENT OF NEW HAVEN. 




The white lines indicate the original streets of the town ; the dotted lines, the additions 
made in two centuries, down to 1838. 

The numerals correspond with those which mark the site of conspicuous events or the 
residences of men who have been prominent in the New Haven of the past. 

"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never 
achieve any thing worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." 

. — Macaul»y. 

Prepared for the use of the Children in the Schools of New Haven, 

many of whom it is hoped may be active in the observance, 

fifty years hence, of the third Centennial of its history. 



FOUNDERS' DA Y COMMITTEE ON SCHOOLS. 
Horace Day. Joseph D. Plunkett. Henry F. Peck. 

Maier Zunder. George L. Fox. 



Quinnipiac-Rodenburgh-New Haven. 



This town was first known to Europeans by the occasional visits of Dutch 
traders, who named it Rodenburgh or Red Hills, from the most conspicuous 
features in the landscape. Its Indian name was Quinnipiac. In 1637, 
when the Pequots were driven from their ancestral homes on the borders of 
Rhode Island, to perish as an independent tribe in a swamp in Fairfield, 
the English soldiers were delayed for several days at Quinnipiac, uncertain 
in what direction the Indians had fled. In this way the place became 
known to Theophilus Eaton and his associates, the first settlers of New 
Haven, who were charmed by the advantages which the place presented for 
the commercial colony they proposed to found. Several weeks were spent 
by Governor Eaton in a survey of the place, and Joshua Atwater with six 
others were left here during the winter of 1637-8, to make the necessary 
provision for the coming colonists. 

Quinnipiac was found to be occupied by a small tribe of Indians num- 
bering forty-seven men. The deed which surrendered the rights of the 
natives, assigns no boundaries to the tract, but conveys their entire territory 
except a few acres reserved for planting, to Theophilus Eaton and John 
Davenport. Soon after, a further purchase was made from Montowese, the 
Sachem of a small tribe containing only ten men, of a tract of land extend- 
ing ten miles southerly from what is now the south part of Meriden, and five 
miles west and seven miles east from the Quinnipiac river. A subsequent 
deed added two miles in width to the western boundar}' of this grant. 
These indefinitely worded deeds convey the title to the original town of 
New Haven, which included East Haven, Branford, North Branford, North 
Haven, Wallingford and Cheshire, together with parts of Orange, Wood- 
bridge, Bethany and Prospect, besides a small part of Meriden. 

Five years after the settlement of the Town, the New Haven "Colony' 
was established by uniting in one jurisdiction New Haven, Guilford, Mil- 
ford, Branford, Stamford (including Greenwich), and Southold on Long 
Island. It remained a distinct and independent colony till its absorption 
by Connecticut under the charter granted to Gov. Winthrop by Charles II. 
in the year 1662. As the New Haven Colony was settled without the 
authority derived from a charter, it reluctantly acquiesced, Dec. 14, 1664, in 
ceasing to exist as a separate jurisdiction. 

Unlike other early settlements, New Haven was designed from the first to 
be a commercial town. In proportion to its numbers, it was the wealthiest 
community in New England. Its leading men had been engaged in foreign 



12 

trade or were merchants in the mother countr}-. The first settlers were rep- 
resentatives of widely separated English homes, but they were banded 
together by their earnest religious sympathies and by their common desire 
to establish a community that should be the model of a free and inde- 
pendent Christian Commonwealth. 



1. Six men under the direction of Joshua Atwater, a merchant of Kent, 
England, encamped near this spot in the winter of 1637-8. Winthrop's 
journal says that the snow lay in New England, this winter, from the fourth 
of November to the twenty-third of March, and was at times from three to 
four feet deep. 

2. The first sermon was preached here by Rev. John Davenport, under a 
huge oak tree, April 25, 1638. Tradition says that the afternoon sermon 
was by Rev. Peter Prudden, soon afterwards the first minister of Milford. 
Thomas Buckingham, ancestor of Gov. Buckingham, was the original 
proprietor of this lot. The frame house fronting Factory street was the 
birth place of Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, father of Henry Ward Beecher. 

3.* The "fundamental agreement," which determined the ecclesiastical 
and civil government of the plantation, was made in Mr. Newman's barn, 
June 4, 1639. By it the elective franchise was limited to church-members, 
who formally organized the civil state, October 25th, 1639, when their magis- 
trates and other municipal officers were first chosen. The day after, an 
Indian accused of murder, was arrested and tried ; confessed his guilt, and 
" accordingly his head was cut off the next day and pitched upon a pole in 
the market place." Barbarous as this mode of execution may seem to us, 
it was then and long afterwards, the custom in the mother country. The 
English act, providing that murderers should be executed the day but one 
after their conviction, was not repealed till 1S36. 

4. Theophilus Eaton, first magistrate of the Town and Governor of the 
Colony, was annually re-elected till his death in January, 1658. 

5. Rev. John Davenport, an ordained clergyman of the church of England, 
and first Pastor in New Haven, removed in 1668 to Boston, where he died 
in 1670. 

* The numbers referring to the first settlers designate only the lots assigned 
them and not their buildings. In most cases tradition has failed to 
identify the site of the latter. Newman's barn was somewhere on the lot on 
Grove street, between Dixwell's corner and the "ordinary" of William 
Andrews. When the residence of the late Prof. Kingsley, now occupied 
by his son-in-law, Henry T. Blake, Esq., on the corner of Temple and Grove 
streets, was built in 1824, an ancient well was uncovered just east of the 
house. This well was doubtless near the dwelling of Robert Newman. 
The position of the " mighty barn " is uncertain ; a suggestion as to its pos- 
sible site is connected with the fact that the broad opening to the original 
2d Quarter farming lands, now the entrance of Hillhouse Avenue, was 
opposite to the present barn of Mrs. Henry Trowbridge, on Grove street. 



13 

6. Stephen Goodyear, an enterprising merchant, one of the first magis- 
trates of the town and Deputy Governor of the Colon)-, died in London in 
1658. 

7. Matthew Gilbert, magistrate, deacon in the church, and in 1660 Deputy 
Governor of the Colony, died in 1680. 

8. Captain Nathaniel Turner having had experience in the Pecfuot war, 
was entrusted with "the command and ordering of all military affairs." 
He was lost in " the great shippe " in 1646. 

9. Ezekiel Cheever, educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. First 
school teacher in New Haven, removed to Massachusetts in 1651, became 
master of the Boston Latin School, and died in 1708, at the age of 94. 

10. Thomas Pell, surgeon at Saybrook fort and in the Pequot war, mar- 
ried the widow of Francis Brewster, the original owner of this lot, who was 
lost at sea in Lamberton's ship. He purchased Pelham Manor in West- 
chester County, N. Y., and died at Fairfield, Conn., in 1669. 

11. Nicholas Augur, practiced medicine in New Haven from 1643 to 1676, 
when he perished by shipwreck on an uninhabited island off Cape Sable. 

12. Mark Pierce, public surveyor and teacher of a private school. 

13. William Jones, an English lawyer, son-in-law of Governor Eaton, 
came to New Haven in 1660, was active in opposing the union of New 
Haven with Connecticut, became Deputy Governor in 1691, and died in 
1706. 

1 4 . -^D avid -¥ale, father of Elihu Yale (from whom the College is named), 
and brother-in-law of Governor Edward Hopkins, the founder of the Gram- 
mar School, removed to Boston in 1645, and afterwards returned to Eng- 
land. 

15. William Andrews, keeper of the first "ordinary" for the entertainment 
of strangers. 

16. Owen Rowe. His name is affixed to the death warrant of King 
Charles L He was associated with Eaton, Davenport, and others in their 
scheme of settlement here, and this home lot was assigned to him. But he 
remained in England and escaped trial as a regicide, by dying in the Tower 
of London. 

17. John Dixwell, another regicide, lived for many years on this corner 
under the assumed name of James Davids, and died here in 1689 at an 
advanced age. 

18. William Hooke, teacher of the First Church, and associated with 
Davenport as Pastor. He returned to England and became domestic 
Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, who was cousin to his wife. She was sister 
to Whalley the regicide, whose daughter was the wife of the regicide Goflfe. 
Both of these parliamentary generals were in concealment in and around 
New Haven for more than two years. 

19. George Lamberton, Captain of the great ship lost at sea in 1646. 

20. Thomas Trowbridge, Barbadoes merchant, died at Taunton, England, 
in 1673. 

21. Henry Rutherford, merchant, ancestor of President Hayes, died in 
1678. His widow married Governor William Leete of Guilford. 

22. Thomas Gregson, merchant, lost at sea in the great ship in 1646. 

23. John Evance, Barbadoes merchant, returned to England. 



14 

24. Isaac Allerton, the leading merchant of New England, one of the Ply- 
mouth pilgrims, died here in 1659 ; his name stands between those of Elder 
Brewster and Miles Standish in the covenant made by the founders of that 
commonwealth. 

25. John Winthrop, Jr., Governor of Connecticut, purchased this home 
lot of Richard Malbon and resided here for two years — one of the wisest 
and best men among the early immigrants. 

26. Yale College, founded at Saybrook in 1700, removed to New Haven 
in 1716. The first building of wood, 170 feet long by 22 feet broad, and three 
stories high, stood on the College grounds near the corner of College and 
Chapel streets. 

27. David Wooster, Major-General in the Revolutionary army, resided in 
this house and died at Danbury in May, 1777, from wounds received in bat- 
tle at Ridgefield. 

28. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Senator 
in Congress, one of the framers of the Constitution, a judge of the Superior 
Court and first Mayor of New Haven, built this house, and died here in 

1793. 

29. James Hillhouse, Senator in Congress. He secured the avails from 
the sale of the " Western Reserve " in the State of Ohio, as a perpetual 
fund for the benefit of the schools of his native State. To him we are 
indebted for the elms which adorn the Green. He died in 1832. 

30. Noah Webster, author of the American Dictionary of the English 
language, built this house, and died here in 1843. 

31. Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. His invention made a revo- 
lution in the clothing of the world. He resided in this house, where he died 
in 1825. 

32. Andrew H. Foote, Rear Admiral U. S. Navy, born in this house. 
After having rendered his country distinguished service in the war of the 
Rebellion, he died in New York City, June 26, 1863, in consequence of a 
wound and of disease contracted at Fort Donelson. 

33. Joseph E. Sheffield, founder of the Sheffield Scientific School. His 
gifts to the school amounted to more than $350,000. 

34. Henr>' Farnam, a benefactor of Yale College. This building is named 
in his honor. The Farnam drive in East Rock Park was constructed 
at his expense. He gave liberal aid to many other projects for the public 
welfare. 

35. Augustus R. Street. For the encouragement of Art in New Haven and 
in the College, he erected the Art Gallery at an expense of nearly $200,000. 
He was also in other ways a liberal benefactor of the College. 

36. Philip Marett. Late in life he became a resident of New Haven, and 
at his death, in 1869, left a noble contingent bequest, to found a free Public 
Library in this City and in aid of the New Haven Hospital, and the two 
Orphan Asylums. 

37. The original " meeting-house " of the first church, a building fifty feet 
square, stood a little in front of the present Center church. Its construction 
was ordered in 1639. For more than a century, the onl}' place of public 
worship was the meeting house of the original church. 



15 

3S. The first Episcopal church was erected in 1753, although Trinity 
Parish was organized several years previous. 

39. The first Methodist church erected by the society in 1807, was on the 
east side of Temple street, between Crown and George streets. It subse- 
quentl)^ became the African Congregational church. The site is now occu- 
pied by a Synagogue of Russian Jews. 

40. The first Baptist church, now the New Haven Opera House, was 
erected in 1822. 

41. The first Roman Catholic church, at the junction of York street and 
Davenport avenue, was erected in 1834. 

42. The first Universalist church was built in 1871, the Society having 
previously, for several years, worshiped in a hall on the southeast corner 
of Court and State streets, or in the building now the New Haven Opera 
House. 

43. The first Synagogue, on Court street, was formerly the place of wor- 
ship of the Third Congregational church. 

44. The oldest building in the city is the little structure on the east side 
of State street. It was built as a warehouse by Henry Rutherford, an orig- 
inal planter. 

45. The oldest dwelling is on the lot north of the Armory in Meadow 
street. It has recently been removed to the rear of the lot. It was built by 
Thomas Trowbridge, Jr., in 1684. 

46. The first ship-3'ard was near the corner of Meadow and West Water 
streets. Within the memory of the living, the tide came up to the south 
side of the latter street. 

47. The Lancasterian School. In 1822, the First Methodist Society built 
a large church on this corner of the Green. Its basement was occupied the 
same year for a public school, conducted by a young and enthusiastic Eng- 
lishman, a favorite pupil of Joseph Lancaster who was the father of the system 
of monitorial instruction. John E. Lovell, that young man, now in the 94th 
year of his age, makes glad the hearts of many of his old pupils by his 
presence with us to-day. 

48. Statue of Abraham Pierson, the first President of Yale College. 

49. The first State House, built in 1717. The first jail, a little south, 
much earlier. 

50. The first burial ground. The " Founders " are at rest under, around 
and in the rear of the Center church. 



The first generation numbering a few hundred, " whose end was religion," 
established here a free commonwealth, enforced civil order, leveled the 
forests, bridged the streams, laid out the streets of our beautiful city, and 
patrolled the town by night, amid summer heats and winter frosts, with mil- 
itary vigilance We have entered into their labors. The history of New 
Haven for the past two hundred and fifty years is on record in Dwight's 
Statistical Account, Barber's Histories, Kingsley's Centennial Address, 
Bacon's Historical Discourses, Atwater's Colonial History and History of 
2 



i6 



the City, the papers of the Historical Societ}' and Levermore's Republic of 
New Haven. Within the memory of the living, the population was almost 
exclusively of English descent. To-day many nationalities find prominent 
and respected representatives in our exceptionally harmonious and pros- 
perous community, Fifty )'ears from now will tell the story of what the 
eighty thousand inhabitants of to-day have done to justify a centennial 
jubilee in the year 1938. Much of this history will depend upon the char- 
acter and intelligence of those who are now children in our schools. 
God save the Commonwealth ! 




ORDER OF PROCESSION. 



Police. 

Wheeler & Wilson's Band. 

Chief Marshal, Major T. ATTWATER BARNES. 

Aids. 

Captain Frank A. Monson, Chief of Staff; Captain Fred. H. Waldron, 

Assistant Marshals ; Major J. E. Stetson, Elliott H. Morse, 

Thomas J. Farley, William J. Lum, John C. North. 



FIRST DIVISION. 

military. 

Marshal — Major Ruel P. Cowles. 
Assistant Marshals — Major William A. Lincoln, Engineer William S. 
Wells, Quartermaster William E. Morgan, Captain James N. Coe, Milo 
D. Tuttle, Leonard Bostwick, F. C. Lum, E. Dickerman, S. S. Thompson, 
Major C. W. Blakeslee, Jr. 

Second Regiment, Connecticut National Guard. 
Colonel W. J. Leavenworth, commanding. 
Second Regiment Band (American), New Haven, John P. Stack, Leader. 
Regimental Drum and Trumpet Corps. 
Regimental Signal Corps. 
Field and Staff — Colonel Walter J. Leavenworth, Lieutenant Colonel 
John B. Doherty, Major Frank T. Lee, Adjutant, Captain Thomas T. 
Wells, Quartermaster, Lieutenant F. J. Dufly, Paymaster, Lieutenant 
William H. Newton, Surgeon, Major Evelyn L. Bissell, Assistant Sur- 
geon, Lieutenant Carl E. Monger, Inspector of Rifle Practice, Captain 
Andrew Allen, Signal Officer, Lieutenant William E. Jackson, Chap- 
lain, Rev. J. E. Twitchell. 

Co. K, Captain Bryant A. Treat. 

Co. G, Captain Alfred J. Wolf. 

Co. H, Captain Wesley U. Pearne. 

Co. C, Captain Timothy F. Callahan. 

Co. E, Captain Theodore H. Sucher. 

Co. A, Captain Lucien F. Burpee. 

Co. B, Captain John Gutt. 

Co. I, Captain Charles A. Bowen. 

Co. F, Captain Charles C. Ford. 

Co. D, Captain Andrew H. Embler. 

Non-commissioned StafiF. 



i8 

Second Machine Gun Platoon. 

Gatling Gun, Second Lieutenant William H. Sears commanding. 

Co. A, Fifth Battalion, C. N. G. 

Captain Daniel S. Lathrop. 

First Lieutenant Daniel Tilgh, Second Lieutenant Charles E. Fuller. 

Wallingford Band. 

Second Co. Governor's Foot Guards (Chartered 1775). 

Captain, . 

First Lieutenant Albert M. Johnson, Second Lieutenant Joseph J. Wooster. 
Carriages containing His Excellency, Phineas C. Lounsbur}', Governor and 

Commander-in-Chief. 
Staff — Adjutant General, Brigadier General Frederick E. Camp ; Quarter- 
master General, Brigadier General Charles Olmstead ; Surgeon Gen- 
eral, Brigadier General Charles J. Fox ; Commissary General, Brigadier 
General John B. Clapp ; Paymaster General, Brigadier General Charles 
H. Pine ; Aide-de-Camps, Colonel Samuel B. Home, Colonel Selah G. 
Blakeman, Colonel J. Dwight Chaffee, Colonel Edwin H. Matthewson ; 
Assistant Adjutant General, Colonel George M. White ; Assistant 
Quartermaster General, Lieutenant Colonel Henry C. Morgan ; Exec- 
utive Secretary, George P. McLean. 

Second Co. Governor's Horse Guard (Chartered 1808). 

Major H. H. Strong, Captain W. Burr Hall, First Lieutenant D. A. Blakeslee, 

Second Lieutenant Luzerne Ludington, Cornet F. L. Newton, 

Quartermaster Isaac W. Hine. 



Grand Army of the Republic. (Founded 1866.) 

Department of Connecticut. (Organized 1866.) 

Meriden City Band, Walter Phoenix, Leader. 
Admiral Foote Post, No. 17 (Chartered 1866). 400 men. 
Commander Lewis B. Brown ; Adjutant E. C. Dow. 
Henry C. Merwin Post, No. 52. 
Commander John J. Brennan ; Adjutant Samuel Morris. 
Drum Corps. 
Gen. Von Steinwehr Post, No. 76 (Chartered 1885). 
Commander Weigand Schlein ; Adjutant Joseph Schleicher. 
Sons of Veterans. 
Drum Corps. 
Nathan Hale Camp, No. i, Captain Fred. Chadeayne. 
N. E. Lincoln, First Sergeant. 
Carriages containing the Board of Selectmen of the Town, the Mayor and 
Common Council of the City, the Orator of the Day, Henry T. Blake, 
and Delegation from the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 
The ship " Constitution " on a decorated float. (Found in the British Chan- 
nel in 1768, and frequently carried in processions in New Haven.) 



19 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Civic Societies. 

Marshal — Brigadier General Charles B. Foster, 
Commanding Third Brigade, Patriarchs Militant. 
Assistant Marshals — Colonel Peter Terhune, F. H. Wheeler, Major H. S. 
Cooper, George H. Rowland, Major H. C. Goodwin, Colonel E. F. 
Durand, Major F. F. Monson, Capt. J. H. Merwin, Major John Saunders, 
Sergeant Major W. H. Harrison, Captain S. T. Lines, Major S. H. Hull, 
Captain F. B. Lane, James Geary, Captain Ferguson, Thomas F. 
McGinniss, Captain J. P. Merrow, Jam^s Snigg, J. F. Brannagan. James 
T. Brennan, Martin Kinare, B. E. Elmstedt. 

Landrigan's Band, J. J. Landrigan, Leader. 
First Battalion Patriarchs Militant. 
Major C. C. Smith, commanding. 
Grand Canton Sassacus, No. i. Captain John S. Hinman. 
Grand Canton Golden Rule, No. 3, Captain Morris A. Ray. 
Canton Aurora, No. 13, Captain Frank Meyer. 
Knights of Pythias. 
Comstock Division, No. 2, Captain W. H. Durand. 
Hermann Division, No. 3, Captain Martin Nagel. 
Order of United American Mechanics. 
Assistant Marshals — Frank Hutchings, W. O. Staples. 
Columbia Band, New Britain. 
Unity Commander)^ No. 2, First Lieutenant J. H. Scranton, Marshal. 
National and State Officers, State Council of Connecticut. 
Pioneer Council, No. i, L. P. Korn, Marshal. 
Washington Council, No. 7, R. S. Duff, Marshal. 
Garfield Council, No. 14, George Gesner, Marshal. 
Lmproved Order of Red Men. 
Hammonassett Tribe, No. i. 
Seventy-five braves, John E. Hunt, Great Senior Sagamore, with delegations 
from Paugasset Tribe, No. 3, Danbury, Pootatuck Tribe, No. 8, Bir- 
mingham, and the Pequot Club, Birmingham. 
Knights of Columbus. 
Weed's Band. 
Assistant Marshal Thomas F. Campbell in command. Aids — Patrick T. 
Carrigan, James Cavanaugh, Henry Conlan, John E. McPartland, John 
Coyne, James P. Gallivan. 
San Salvador Council, No. i, Grand Knight, Alexander Bieto. 
Santa Maria Council, No. 8, Grand Knight, Thomas F. Coffee. 
Columbia Council, No. 20. 
Elm City Council, No. 25. 
Loyal Council, No. 30. 
Decorated Float with Tableaux, representing " The Landing of Columbus," 

for whom the order is named. 

Knights of St. Patrick — James Reilly, President ; Frank W. Tiernan, 

Secretary ; in carriages. 



20 

Swedish Societies — John Sampson, Thomas Broms, Assistant Marshals. 
Bethesda Benevolent Society — John Johnson, President. 
Viking Society — Adolph F. Bergholm, President. 
Italian Societies — L. di Bella, Assistant Marshal. 
Columbia Drum Corps. 
Fratellanza Italia (Organized 1883). 
President L. di Matteo, Marshal Paul Russo, Commander Garabaldi, Presi- 
dent A. Tacinelli, Captain A. Manns, Assistant Marshals E. L. Del Grego, 
L.'G. Garabaldi, President L. di Bella, Assistant Marshal R. De Vita. 
The C. Columbus Political Independents — President D. Spinnetteo, 
Assistant Marshal M. Barletta. 
Bicycle Club — Captain Charles E. Larom. 



THIRD DIVISION. 

Schools. 

Marshal— Samuel T. Dutton. 
Aids— Major George H. Larned, Albert B. Fifield, C. T. Driscoll, Dr. W. H. 
Carmalt, Thomas Hooker, Henry W. Farnam, J. R. French, Rev. E. S. 
Lines, E. A. Callahan, Simon Shoninger, Arthur Ruickoldt, George B. 
Hurd, S. G. Pease, Rev. I. C. Meserve, B. E. L)'nch, Wm. H. Brown, 
F. M. Adler, J. J. Kennedy, Rev. A. P. Miller. 
Landerer's Band. 
S. M. Munson, Samuel A. Stevens, Assistant Marshals, 
Carriages containing John E. Lovell, Hon. Henrj' B. Harrison, Hon. James 
E. English, John C. Bradley. 
Carriages containing former pupils of Lancasterian School. 
Lancasterian Veterans. 
Members of other schools that appeared in the parade in 1838. 
Malcolm Booth, Assistant Marshal. 
The Hopkins Grammar School Company, Capt. John S. Schoonover. 

Hillhouse High School Compan)', F. M. Lloyd, Captain. 
Carriages containing Board of Education and Principals of Schools. 
Grammar School Guard, Henry W. Loomis, Assistant Marshal ; Dwight 
School Company, Jerr)' Donovan, Captain ; Webster School Company, 
Albert Richter, Captain ; Welch School Company, John Reynolds, 
Captain ; Washington School, Company A, Thomas Moore, Captain ; 
Washington School, Company B, Thomas Bergen, Captain ; Skinner 
School Compan)', James Veech, Captain ; Eaton School Company, 
C. F. Bassett, Captain ; Woolsey School Company, E. J. Smith, Cap- 
tain ; Hamilton School Company, John Rodican, Captain ; Wooster 
School Company, Ralph True, Captain ; Winchester School Company, 
Walter Frey, Captain ; St. Francis School, Frank Shanahan, Captain ; 
St. John's School, New Grammar School, Westville Public School. 



21 

FOURTH DIVISION (in two sections). 

Firemen. 

Marshal — Hiram Camp. 

Assistant Marshals — William F. Vogel, Edward O'Brien, Lawrence 

O'Brien, H. A. Stevens. 

Band. 

FIRST SECTION. 

New Haven Veteran Firemen's Association. 

Hiram Camp, President ; George W. Stoddard, Secretary. 

Fift}' men with hand engine Volunteer. 

Drum Corps. 

Sons of Veteran Firemen. Chas. Doty, President ; Geo. Allen, Secretary. 

Forty men with hose carriage. 

Hubbard Drum Corps. 

Winchester Hose Company, No. i (Organized 1881). 

Henry S. Hamilton, Foreman ; A. L. Woodcock, Secretary. 

Fifty men with hose carriage. 

Sassacus Drum Corps. 

Fire Department Fair Haven, East. H. A. Stevens, Chief. 

SECOND SECTION. 
IVew HaTeii Fire Department. 

Meriden Military Band. 

Chief, Albert C. Hendrick ; Assistant Chief, Andrew J. Kennedy ; Assistant 
Chief, William C. Smith ; Assistant Chief, John L. Disbrow. 

Steamer Co. No. i, Capt. Edward I. Barrett ; Steamer Co. No. 2, Capt. 
William H. Hubbard ; Steamer Co. No. 3, Capt. Charles B. Dyer ; 
Steamer Co. No. 4, Capt. Christopher T. Langley ; Hook and Ladder 
Co. No. I, Capt. Charles H. Hilton ; Steamer Co. No. 5, Capt. Henry 
Tuttle ; Steamer Co. No. 6, Capt. Wilfred F. Spang ; Hose Co. No. 7, 
Capt. John W. Stoddard ; Steamer Co. No. 8, Capt. James J. Bradnack ; 
Hook and Ladder Co. No. 3, Capt. Henry J. Wilson. 

The several sections of the procession were formed on the lower Green, 
Elm and Temple streets, under their division commanders, and at 10.45 
moved out of the south gate of the Green over the following streets : 
Chapel, Church, George, College, Chapel, York, Elm, College, Grove, 
Orange, Elm, Grand, St. John, Olive, Green, Wooster Place, Chapel, Church, 
Elm, to the north gate of the Green. 

At the City Hall the procession was reviewed by Governor Lounsbury 
and Staff, and the City and Town officials, and was dismissed at i p. m. 

After the review by the Governor, the 2d Regiment gave a dress parade 
on the Green, which was viewed by thousands of citizens. 



Order of Exercises at Center Church. 



Master of Ceremonies, Pres. TIMOTHY D WIGHT, D.D. 
Voluntary, Organ — Theme and Variations, - - Ancient Melody 

Opening Prayer, ... - By President Timothy Druight. D.D. 
Singing by the Choir — "Te Deum Laudamus." 

Reading of the Scriptures, - - By Rev. E. E. Beaj-dsley, D.D. 
Reading of Dr. Bacon's Hymn, - - By Rev. Newman Smyth, D.D. 

O God, beneath thy guiding hand. 

Our exiled fathers crossed the sea ; 
And when they trod the wintry strand. 

With prayer and psalm they worshiped thee. 

Thou heard'st, well pleased, the song, the prayer, 

Thy blessing came ; and still its power 
Shall onward through all ages bear 

The memory of that holy hour. 

Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God 

Came with those exiles o'er the waves ; 
And where their pilgrim feet have trod, 

The God they trusted guards their graves. 

And here thy name, O God of love. 

Their children's children shall adore, 
Till these eternal hills remove, 

And spring adorns the earth no more. 

Oration, By Henry T. Blake, Esq. 

Singing by the Choir — Hymn "America." 

Prayer, By Rev. G. E. Reed, D.D. 

DOXOLOGY. 

Benediction, By Rev. S. D. Phelps, D.D. 

Postlude in E Flat, --------- Wely 

Seats reserved until ten minutes before 2 p. m. for invited guests. 



The Choir were the Quartette and Chorns of Center Church, under the direction 
of the Organist, Mr. S. R. Ford. 



-'-' ^»a^i^^- 



ORATION 



By Henry T. Blake. 



Fellow To'vnsmen of New Haven : 

The Law of Moses, which the founders of New Haven 
adopted as an "annex " to the civil code of their Colony, com- 
manded that every fiftieth year after the arrival of the chosen 
people in the promised land should be observed as a year of 
jubilee. " On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day 
of atonement, ye shall make the trumpet to sound throughout 
all your land ; and ye shall hallow the 50th year and proclaim 
liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." 
There is therefore, a peculiar fitness in our assembling to cel- 
ebrate this 250th anniversary of the first settlement of this 
town as if in obedience to the organic law of the Common- 
wealth. And in further compliance with that law, the trumpets 
having now ceased to sound, it behooves me as my first and 
foremost duty on this occasion " to proclaim liberty through- 
out the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Among the 
80,000 residents of New Haven the descendants of its founders 
form a very small proportion. Probably those who were born 
within its limits are but a minority. But to-day the town itself 
has been re-born. By our common action it has been settled 
anew ; it has been re-founded. Henceforth, then, we are all 
original settlers, — all town born ! Welcome, then, ye who 
were hitherto aliens, to the rights, privileges and immunities 
of that favored condition ! Welcome to your proprietary 
interests in the market-place and in the outlying lands that 



24 

may still remain undivided in the Oyster-shell fields, in the 
Ox-pasture, or about the savory precincts of Ditch-Corner ! 
No more on shipboard in stress of weather shall your goods 
be first consigned with "ghoulish glee " to sacrifice; and the 
ignominious epithet of "interloper" shall lapse henceforth 
into " innocuous desuetude." 

It is possible that some of you do not fully appreciate the 
dignity of the birthright into which you have thus been 
inducted. Possibly you may not readily perceive how close 
relationship to the town of New Haven can add materially to 
the honor already possessed by respected and influential free- 
men of the city. You may reason perhaps that one who has 
formed a union with the blooming and vigorous daughter has 
no especial inducement to cultivate intimate associations with 
an ancient mother-in-law. It is true that the Town organiza- 
tion, that original republic of historic importance and historic 
fame has during the last two generations been crowded into 
the back ground by its bustling and ambitious municipal 
offspring. One by one it has been shorn of its former prerog- 
atives and honors until now it exists but a shadow of its former 
self, having nearly outlived its usefulness ; a faded and crumb- 
ling relic of the past ; like that classic edifice (oh ! breathe not 
its name) which rears its stately but dilapidated form in our 
midst, a ghost of departed glory, and which like the ghost of 
Banquo, will never down ! At the time of the last centennial 
celebration, the Town as a civil and political entity was still 
paramount. The City was hardly more than an annex or 
adjunct to it. The changes wliich have brought about the 
reversal of their respective positions have all occurred within 
the last fifty years, and most of them are still fresh in the 
memories of our citizens even of those of middle life. At this 
half-way point of the century a brief sketch of those changes 
will be appropriate. But a detailed historical recital of them 
is quite unnecessary and might be tedious ; the more so as full 
and accessible records of them all exist in the files of the local 



25 

newspapers, the excellent history of New Haven by Levermore 
and in numerous valuable papers in the volumes of the New 
Haven Historical society and elsewhere. And as to the rest of 
the acts of this Commonwealth, and the lives of its mighty 
men, and all that they did, are they not written in the Book of 
the Chronicles of the City of New Haven published by Mun- 
sell ? I shall therefore on this occasion, during the hour or so 
that is allotted me, attempt no more than a reference to some 
of the phases of change through which the rural town has 
developed in less than a lifetime into a crowded and busy 
metropolis. Such a retrospect I trust will be pleasing to those 
who will remember the various matters to which I shall allude, 
as part of their own personal history ; instructive to later 
comers whether by birth or change of residence ; and more or 
less interesting to our descendants as a recoi"d of impressions 
produced by events of the first half of the century on those 
who were actors in it. 

In 1838 New Haven was little more than an overgrown but 
still growing country village. Its population was about 13,500 
and of this number probably little over 500, if so many, were of 
foreign birth. The business part of the town was confined to 
Chapel street between Church and State, State and Fleet streets 
to the head of the wharf, and Church street from Chapel to 
Crown. The architectural glories of this region were the 
Exchange Building and Street Building, both then recently 
erected. The dwelling houses of the town were almost uni- 
versally of wood, and outside of the business district a brick 
erection was looked upon with some pride as giving a metro- 
politan air to the place. What was then called '' the thickly 
settled " portion of the town was substantially bounded on the 
north by Grove street, on the east by Olive street, Brewer)^ 
street and Wooster place and on the west by York street and 
Broadway. Outside of these limits and even from man)' points 
of view within them, the vision passed unobstructed outwards 



26 

across an open country with here and there a dwelling. Fair 
Haven, better known as " Dragon," and Westville, then gener- 
ally denominated " Hotchkisstown," were outlying hamlets 
separated from New Haven proper by open fields traversed by 
sandy and shadeless roads. 

There was a line of daily steamboats to New York : tliere 
were also two daily stages to Hartford, which made the trip in 
six hours when the roads were good ; and daily or less fre- 
quent stages to some of the adjoining towns. The railroad to 
Hartford was not opened till 1839, though the Centennial 
medal, with pardonable anticipation represents a train of cars 
merrily spinning along in front of the churches on the Green. 
Nearly every highway of communication with the surrounding 
country Avas turnpiked and barred by gates with heavy rates of 
toll. There were the Milford turnpike, the Derby turnpike, 
the Litchfield turnpike, the Cheshire turnpike, the Hai-tford 
turnpike, the MiddletoAvn turnpike, and the Branford turn- 
pike. A drive to Bridgeport and back in a one-horse carriage 
cost 75 cents for tolls. There was considerable traffic by 
wagons with the Naugatuck Valley, afterwards transferred to 
Bridgeport by the construction of the Naugatuck Railroad ; 
but the great public work and avenue of inland commerce was 
the Farmington canal, which had been finally carried through 
to Northampton in 1835. As a picturesqvie featvire of the town, 
and as a source of water supply in some cases of fire, as well 
as in furnishing additional skating and swimming accommoda- 
tions for the boys, it was a partial success ; but as a speculative 
enterprise it was a gloomy Styx for New Haven capital, a 
melancholy bourne from which no dollar ever retvirned. In 
183S it had a line of fast passenger packets to Northampton 
on a time-table of 26 hours ; and the route on account of its 
speed and comfort was occasionally patronized. The freight 
business was confined to one and sometimes two boats per 
day during the open season, that is to say about eight 
months in the year, each boat being somewhat larger than an 



27 

ordinary railroad car, and the cargoes consisted of hides, flour, 
coffee and other like bulky goods in one direction, and cord- 
wood and general farm products in the other. Freights to 
Boston Avent entirely by water, a schooner running regvilarly 
once a fortnight. There was also a coasting trade with other 
domestic ports, and an active foreign commerce, principally 
with the West Indies ; so that Long Wharf generally presented 
a lively scene, w4th vessels arriving and departing, molasses 
and sugar unloading and horses and mules embarking in a 
state of "pernicious activity." 

The manufacturing industries of New Haven in 1838 were 
regarded with pride by its citizens, although in comparison 
with those of the present day they seem but few and simple. 
By the census returns of 1840 the total capital employed in 
manufacturing was $921,000. Of this amount the largest invest- 
ment is assigned to tanneries, of which five are reported, with 
a total capital of $101,700 and an annual product of $380,000. 
The next largest industry was carriage making, with twelve 
factories, an aggregate capital of $101,000 and a product in 
1839 of $234,000, though this is probably below the average. 
There were several printing and binding establishments, and 
$40,000 was invested in the manufacture of furniture. There 
were also in 1838 an ax factory and a carpet factory, both of 
which, however, soon succumbed. Boots and shoes and cloth- 
ing were made to some extent. Hardware manufacturing had 
just started in a small way, its principal seat being Westville. 
There were also three small iron foundries. A limited and 
mostly local trade in Dragon oysters was carried on at Fair 
Haven, but the oyster beds were generally free to the public, 
and the great business of oyster culture has since been en- 
tirely developed. 

When we compare these statistics with those of 1888, the 
total manufacturing capital increased from $921,000 to about 
$20,000,000, the annual carriage product from $234,000 to 
$2,000,000 ; the hardware business, then just started, grown to 



28 

over $2,500,000 annual production, and the total annual 
product of all manufactures amounting to some 30,000,000 
of dollars, we realize the change which fifty years have 
effected in the volume and methods of business operations. 
As transportation was everywhere slow and expensive, the 
market for manufactured goods was necessarily limited, and 
though in the absence of sharp competition the profits were 
relatively large, yet they aggregated but little. Hand labor or 
simple machinery run by water power were practically the sole 
agencies of production. It is doubtful whether there Avere in 
1838 five steam engines in Ncav Haven. Business corporations 
for manufacturing or mercantile purposes were as yet almost 
unknown, and a business enterprise with a capital of $10,000 
was esteemed a large concern. 

Coal was just beginning to be used as fuel, but in the absence 
of railroad transportation from the mines the supply was of 
course small, and the cost of it heavy. Gas was not introduced 
till ten years later. Whale oil lamps and candles within doors 
gave forth their feeble aad flickering gleams, while the streets 
unlighted and unpaved were beds of bottomless dirt or fathom- 
less mud, where at night blind led blind and both fell into the 
ditch. Friction matches had begun to supplant the old flint 
and steel and tinder boxes, and while accepted as a great 
domestic convenience, were looked upon with apprehension as 
increasing the chances of accidental and incendiary fires ; and 
of these owing to the scarcity of water there was constant 
dread. Hence when the alarm of " fire " was heard, which was 
often, the whole community was at once in a turmoil. Houses, 
churches and all places of public resort were instantly emptied. 
A chorus of universal cries filled Heaven's concave. Every 
bell pealed forth an unceasing clamor ; while the seven hand 
fire engines drawn by shouting men flew like demoniac chariots 
along the sidewalks in as many different directions, unguided 
by any system of signals, each company on its own account 
hunting for the flames, and each a little too anxious to secure 



29 

the ten dollars reward for a first appearance at the fire to 
impart any private information of its locality to a rival. Not 
infrequently the whole excitement arose from a false alarm, 
but if not, when the fire was discovered, if the building had 
not already burned down, the spectators were formed in long 
lines by the fire marshal to every well, cistern and barrel in 
the neighborhood, and water was passed to the engines by hand 
in leathern fire bvickets, which every householder was required 
by law to keep for this purpose, and to send or bring to the 
spot in such emergencies. 

The town and city organizations reflected the simplicity and 
democratic usages of the times. Of the city government I 
will only speak so far as to illustrate the limited sphere which 
it occupied in the administration of public affairs. Its charter 
powers were very narrow, and owing to the restrictions placed 
upon their exercise were only partially availed of . Up to 1857 
no by-law passed by the Court of Common Council was valid 
till approved of by a popular vote, and even then it was liable 
to be repealed by the Superior Court if found unjust or un- 
reasonable. In 1854 a city meeting forbade the Common 
Coiancil to appropriate more than $100 at any one time with- 
out the sanction of the people. It will easily be inferred that 
all public improvements languished of which the city had 
jurisdiction ; since every attempt to establish them or even 
a systematic watch and police was compelled to encounter the 
opposition in public meeting of interested parties as well as 
the general taxpayer's cry of extravagance. That old fash- 
ioned conservative spirit which still lingers among us would 
not be beguiled or driven into a reckless race of municipal 
development. It clung to the town idea as paramount and 
kept the city administration in leading-strings. In 1838 the 
salary of the first selectman was $500, while that of the mayor 
was only $200, and a similar disproportion continued as late 
as i860. 



30 

As the town was the dominant organization in civil affairs, 
so the first selectman was the highest representative of civic 
dignity. And what old resident that hears a reference to the 
first selectman in 1838 will fail to recall the image of Captain 
Benjamin Beecher who filled that ofiice from 1834 to 1849. A 
short, beaming faced, active man of genial mould, a prince of 
good fellows, one of the celebrities of New Haven for two 
generations. A sloop and steamboat captain eke was he, of 
credit and renowm, who brought his professional language of 
command and his command of professional language also to 
bear with great effect in his civil administration ; and of whom 
many anecdotes might be related which would be quite out of 
place in this sacred edifice. There was another personage at 
that time among the town officials, hardly less famous and awe- 
inspiring, Jesse Knevals the constable, of rubicund visage, that 
terror of evil doers, before whose reputation as a detective and 
thief-taker the names of Vidocq and Jonathan Wild, at least in 
the estimation of the boys of that period, paled into obscurity. 
There was no standing city police, and as the City Court had 
no criminal jurisdiction the administration of local justice was 
confined to the grand jurors and the justices of the peace. 
Thus the principal functions of executive and judicial power 
were exercised by the town authorities. But as the basis of 
both town and city systems, the power behind all powers, the 
final embodiment of all political authority in legislation was 
the Sovereign People in town or city meeting assembled. 
Far different were those town meetings from the degenerate 
conclaves of a dozen or two individuals Avhich in our day oc- 
casionally collect in a hired upper room in a quiet street, and 
pass votes which require judicial decisions to interpret, and 
additional meetings to revise. They were grand, majestic up- 
risings of the whole body of the people, which filled the town 
hall to overflowing, and shook its walls with eloquence; and 
which after discussion had been exhausted and the question 
was called for, poured out into the open air, and formed long 



31 

lines on the green to take what no political or social excite- 
ment lias ever yet denied in New Haven, a free vote, and a fair 
count. 



A review of the recollections of that period when New 
Haven was still a typical, old fashioned New England town, 
and when its social features were still moulded in ancestral 
forms, would be incomplete without a reference to some other 
institutions and customs characteristic of that pre-transition 
era. The days of civic festivity were not numerous, but two at 
least in every year were observed with general ardor. The first 
Monday in May was prescribed by law for an annual military 
muster, a relic of the colonial period, and under the title of 
"training day," was looked forward to by at least the youthful 
part of the population with joyous anticipation. On that day 
the schools were dismissed, the workshops were deserted and 
the rural population took possession of the town. Refresh- 
ment booths lined the edges of the green, and its area was 
thronged throughout the day by a miscellaneous crowd of sight- 
seers, intermingled with penny-pitching groups and itinerant 
vendors of home-made molasses candy. At seven o'clock in 
the morning the drums were sounded on the green and from 
that hour until late in the afternoon the air resounded with 
martial music and was hazy with the smoke of pistols and fire 
crackers, and the streets were beaten into clouds of dust by the 
marching hosts. Every able-bodied citizen not specially ex- 
empt was enrolled for duty, and the military display exhibited 
two different sides. There were the un-uniformed companies, 
commonly known as "the Milish," which parading only under 
obligation of the law, and accoutered with such equipments as 
each man considered most becoming or convenient, turned the 
whole proceeding into a farce and enlivened it with every gro- 
tesque embellishment which could enter the brains of the 
lively young men who participated. The other side was that 
of the tmiformed or so-called " independent " companies, then 
3 



32 

consisting of tlie Governor's Guards, horse and foot, the artil- 
lery (or Blues) and the Grays — small but spirited organizations 
of citizen soldiery whose fine appearance on those training 
days redeemed them from discredit and kept alive a military 
interest in this community. Mvich does New Haven owe to 
those " independent companies " on whose honorable rolls the 
names of so many of our leading citizens are recorded ; and 
which, preserved from disintegration through so many years 
by their patriotic perseverance, produced such rich and abun- 
dant fruit in the time of the Civil War. That splendid regi- 
ment which has paraded as escort to-day is the lineal successor 
and largely the outgrowth of the two little companies, hardly 
larger than battalions, the Artillery and the Grays, which on 
the last centennial anniversary marched at the head of the pro- 
cession under the commands of Captain Morris Tyler and Cap- 
tain Elijah Thompson. 

The other civic holiday, the fourth of July, it would seem 
hardly necessary to refer to as an ancient institution of New 
Haven, were it not that fifty years ago it was observed with a 
general patriotic interest which seems in these later days to be 
passing out of fashion. The sweet note of the fire cracker, it 
is true, still attests the honorable place which the national 
birthday holds in the affections of Young America ; but the 
filial pride, the reverent enthusiasm with which every Ameri- 
can citizen should welcome that great anniversary and transmit 
its observance as a conscientious duty to posterity, seems in 
danger of waning into a lazy preference for peace and quiet. 
Never until 1887, since the declaration of independence did the 
public authorities of New Haven refuse to provide for that na- 
tional salute of bells and cannon at sunrise and sunset, which 
our forefathers would have regarded it as little short of sacri- 
lege to omit. Never vmtil 1885, since we became a nation, was 
the national ensign itself banished from its time honored place 
in the center of New Haven green. For that one year the sun 
in his daily course looked for the historic liberty pole in vain ; 



33 

but happily the patriotic conscience of our citizens revived ; the 
old flag staff was restored to its accustomed position and now 
the glorious banner of the Union floats again from its peak, 
never, let us hope, to be again displaced. Forever float that 
standard sheet, the central object in New Haven's sight, the 
central symbol in New Haven's patriotism ! And unless we 
desire that our children shall cease to remember and honor the 
conflict and the glory amid which that flag was born and has 
been maintained, let its rising and descending be greeted on 
every national birthday with the thunder of artillery ! Doubt- 
less there are serious objections to this within the crowded 
limits of the city ; but what spot could be more convenient and 
appropriate than one of the summits of East Rock Park, w4iere 
the same slant beams of the rising and the setting sun will kiss 
at once the national standard and the monument erected to its 
defenders ? 

Of the social characteristics which prevailed in our com- 
munity fifty years ago, a few words may be said to illustrate 
the changes that have occurred in public sentiment on some 
subjects during that period. Happily there still obtains in New 
Haven life and manners much of their former simplicity, mod- 
ified of course by the great increase of population, the larger 
wealth of the community and a more intimate intercourse 
with the outside world. A distinctively religious influence on 
all social usages was then a marked characteristic, and espe- 
cially on all matters pertaining to public or private amuse- 
ments. By a very large part of the community dancing was 
strongly disapproved of, and the playing of cards by a still 
larger proportion. The sale of playing cards was prohibited 
by law until 1848. In 1841 a law was passed suppressing bowl- 
ing alleys unless specially licensed by the authorities. In 1848 
it was made unlawful to own a billiard table even for private 
use. Exhibitions of mountebanks, tumblers, rope dancers, 
puppet shows, and feats of agility and dexterity were abso- 



34 

lutely excluded from the State by law until 1862. So also were 
circus performances of horses and other animals under penalty 
of a heavy fine and the forfeiture of the animals. Theaters and 
theatrical exhibitions were also forbidden until 1852, when 
they were allowed if specially approved and licensed. Yet the 
dramatic taste which seems implanted in every human mind 
was not entirely smothered by these rigid proscriptions, and a 
quiet theatrical performance if called by an unobjectionable 
name would occasionally be winked at by the authorities. 
There was one annual dramatic entertainment especially which 
was so innocent and pleasing in its character that it met with 
universal approval and patronage. This Avas the yearly 
'' School Exhibition " of John E. Lovell, whom we rejoice to 
welcome to-day as our venerable and honored guest. Not his 
old pvipils only but our whole community greets him with re- 
spect and gratitude in remembrance of his faithful and useful 
services in former generations to the youth of New Haven and 
America. 

Among the changes in social morals and usages which have 
occurred during the last half century, none have been more 
marked than those effected by the temperance reformation. In 
1838 this movement was just acquiring headway. It was then 
displayed largely in processions and lectures and other forms 
of moral suasion, though the effort to repress intemperance by 
law was commencing and for many years thereafter created 
agitation and division in the politics of the State. A crisis was 
reached in 1854 when the Maine law, so-called, was enacted, for- 
bidding liquors to be sold except at public agencies to be estab- 
lished by the towns and then only for sacramental, medical and 
mechanical purposes. The agency was required to keep a pub- 
lic registry of each sale, showing the name of the buyer, the 
quantity bought and the object of the purchase. As the day ap- 
proached, our streets were alive with a general hegira of every 
species of stimulating fluid to the cellars of prudent house- 



35 

holders in preparation for a long and thirsty siege. Nor was 
the panic wholly without foundation. At the first town meet- 
ing to establish an agency under the law the sum of six and a 
quarter cents was appropriated for the purchase of the town 
supply of liquors, with a proviso, however, that the money 
should not be drawn from the treasury for six years from the 
date of the vote. But at a later meeting the town, appalled at 
the probable consequences of so meager a provision, rescinded 
its action and furnished the agency with a larger and more 
available capital. The agency continued in operation until 
1^5 7? by which time the medical column of the register dis- 
closed a very discouraging state of the public health. In that 
year, however, the law was repealed, and the medical statistics 
were suspended with it, so that the general sanitary restoration, 
if any ensued, can only be inferred ; it cannot, like the previ- 
ous decadence, be established by record evidence of unimpeach- 
able authority. 

I have sketched thus imperfectly the appearance and 
some of the municipal and social features of New Haven in 
1838 because that year stands at the threshold of a new era in 
the methods of its civil and material progress. Up to that time 
its development had been along the same lines of growth 
that were established by its founders. Of course there had 
been in two centuries an increase of population, of wealth, and 
of culture, and a widening of the field of its activities. We 
may well admit also that ideas of civil and religious liberty 
had advanced since the days of Eaton and Davenport. It was 
the lasting honor of the Puritans that they embodied in their 
civil and social polity principles which are by their nature pro- 
gressive. They builded better than they knew, and if many of 
their inherited views were narrow or erroneous, they at least 
never feared or failed to follow in whatever direction freedom 
and truth might take, and they never turned backwards in that 
path. Cautious and conservative they undoubtedly were ; yet 



36 

the passage from a theocracy to the complete separation of 
Church and State had been by a process of natural though slow 
development ; and the final change when it came in the State 
Constitution of iSi8 effected a nominal rather than an actual 
revolution in religious tolerance. In the same conservative 
way though the city organization had been in force for over 
fifty years, the town idea and administration still maintained 
their original supremacy. The severe and simple morals and 
manners of the earlier settlers still prevailed in social life, and 
native inhabitants still formed the body of the population. 
Even the external appearance of the town, except that it had 
become enlarged and beautified, had not changed materially 
from that of the rural village of the previous century. Com- 
merce, manufactures and transportation as we have seen, were 
still dependent, as they had been two hundred years before, on 
the simple agencies of winds and horses and water power and 
hand labor. Hence the orator at the last centennial celebration 
could look backwards to no decisive turning point which 
marked a new era in the prosperity of the town, or a new depar- 
ture in its methods of social or political life. And when he 
inquired with respect to the future, " Who can descry with 
distinctness the condition of even the next generation ?" far 
indeed was he from forecasting the amazing changes which that 
generation was to behold and which even then were about to 
open. 

For the time had come when the age of hand-labor and of in- 
dividual effort and enterprise as the leading agencies in civili- 
zation was to pass away, and the age of organized power, the 
age of machinery, of combined or associated action, was to take 
control of all physical and moral forces, and by wielding them 
on the widest scale was to effect transformations foreshadowed 
by no previous experience. The cavises of this change were 
numerous and affected not New Haven only but our whole 
country and the civilized world. They were those new con- 



37 

ditions which, springing into existence almost together, threw 
upon society many and enormous additions to its means of in- 
tercourse, traffic and production. Of these new conditions the 
most important grew out of the application of steam to rail- 
Avays, the great and rapid growth of foreign immigration, the 
sudden increase in the volume of the precious metals, the in- 
troduction of electricity in the transmission of intelligence, and 
an abundant and cheap supply of coal and its products for fuel 
and improved illumination.* To wield these various agencies 
for the progress of civilization, new instrumentalities were 
called for and speedily developed in the nature of organized 
machinery, such as combinations of individuals, combinations 
of capital, combinations of matter ; and thus arose that new 
age in the history of mankind which we designate the age of 
machinery ; an age marked by the use of machinery and 
machine-like methods in all the affairs of life, in manufactures, 
in trade, in public business, in domestic living, in politics, in 
the regulation of labor, and alas ! in religion itself. 



To review in detail the successive steps by which the quiet 
old fashioned town of 1838 was taken possession of by the 
spirit of machinery and transformed into the bustling city of 
to-day would transcend my limits and I shall simply mention 

* It is a fact of sufficient historical importance to deserve recording in 
this place, that the first known petroleum well was bored in 1859 at Titus- 
ville, Penn, as an experiment, by direction of the "Seneca Oil Company" 
of New Haven, of which Hon. James M. Townsend was President. Pre- 
vious to that time, the oil which had a very limited use in its crude state for 
medical and chemical purposes, was collected from the surface of water in 
shallow trenches and pits. The boring proved successful, producing a sup- 
ply of several hundred gallons per day, and the discovery thus made of the 
unlimited quantities of oil obtainable led to subsequent processes of refin- 
ing for. illuminating purposes, and to the invention of suitable lamps and 
burning devices whereby the various forms of industry and commerce con- 
nected with petroleum have been developed throughout the world. In rec- 
ognition of this great service to Pennsylvania the legislature of that state 
afterwards granted a pension to the agent of the company, E. L. Drake, 
who went from New Haven and superintended the boring. 



38 

a few of them. In 1S39 came railroad connection Avith Hart- 
ford. The old canal Avas soon abandoned and was opened as a 
railroad to Plain ville in 1848. The railroad to New York was 
completed in the same year. Gas was introduced in 1848. The 
telegraph came in 1S49. In 1850 commenced the movement 
for the water works, although water was not actually introduced 
till 1862. For this great boon, acquired for this community 
only through a long and arduous controversy, New Haven is 
glad to acknowledge a new obligation to the honored name of 
Eli Whitney. The construction of sewers followed necessarily 
on the water works. The George street sewer had been in fact 
completed before the water began to flow. The present system 
of sewers with all its associated financial, administrative and 
engineering arrangements was the growth of many years ; and 
it will ever remain a monument to the forethought, the energy, 
the good judgment and the untiring perseverance of Hon. 
Henry G. Lewis, Mayor of the city from 1870 to 1877. The 
march of improvement had meanwhile been going on apace. 
Under the joint stock corporation act which was passed in 1837 
and which was itself a remarkable landmark in our industrial 
jurisprudence, great numbers of manufacturing and other enter- 
prises had sprung into existence ; new buildings, public and 
private, factories and warehouses Avere filling up the vacant 
spaces. Sidewalks and gutters had become nearly universal. 
Street paving which had commenced in 1852 by macadamizing 
Whalley avenue with hand broken stone, proceeded about 1S57 
with Belgian blocks in Chapel, State and Grand streets, but 
halted there until machine-broken stone made a general Telford 
system possible some ten years later. Horse railroads began 
to appear in i860. The " Little Derby " railroad Avith Avhich as 
a city investment Ave have lately so cheerfully parted, re-annexed 
the Naugatuck Valley to NeAv Haven in 187 1. The Western 
Union telegraph poles and Avires Avere already croAvding our 
streets Avhen the fire alarm system and the public school sys- 
tem, and the police system, and finally the telephone and elec- 



39 

trie light systems, all successively added their contributions to 
that " harp of a thousand strings " by which '' the spirits of just 
men are ''not'' made perfect." 

Thus by one change after another the quiet and antiquated 
town has seen itself since 1838, linked to its neighbors by strips 
of steel, strapped across with iron bands, planed down and 
built up to uniform grades, plated and trimmed and grooved 
with layers of brick and stone, perforated with a labyrinth of 
tubes, and enveloped with a net work of wires. In short it has 
seen itself transformed into a great public machine ; a machine 
to be operated in the water business, in the gas business, in the 
drainage business, in the transportation and traveling busi- 
ness, and in all the departments of electric business ; vocations 
all, which the old town was too old fashioned to learn but 
which the brisk young city was quite willing to undertake. 
And so it has come about that divesting herself of all respon- 
sibility and worry connected with the active management of 
these and co-ordinate matters the ancient commonwealth has 
turned over the charge of its business affairs to its municipal 
daughter, and settled herself down in a dignified repose. By 
successive amendments to the City Charter commencing in 
1842 and ending with 1880 both the powers and the limits of 
the city have been so extended that the administrative functions 
of the town within that part of its territory have been svibstan- 
tially superseded. Two smaller children, however, yet remain 
under the maternal jurisdiction ; the ever faithful Westville 
and that once errant daughter, the East Haven Annex, long 
separated from her care, but lately returned to the family 
hearth. These the venerable town still hugs to her bosom ; 
they also, with equal fondness cling tightly to her skirts, and 
have thus far successfully resisted every effort of their big 
and jealous sister to entice or drag them from that motherly 
shelter. 

But while the town has so largely withdrawn from the mere 
business affairs of local government, it has not abdicated those 



40 

higher functions which concern the relations of the citizen to 
the State ; such as the conferment of electoral rights, the mili- 
tary defence of the country, and the dispensation of public 
charity. Upon its exercise of all these duties during the last 
fifty years I have no time to dwell. I can only advert to so 
much of the second as respects the services of New Haven in 
the War for the Union and even upon this in no proportion to 
its historic grandeur and importance. It would indeed be im- 
possible to worthily recite that story of effort and achievement, 
in which both town and city are indistinguishably blended. 
Nor is it necessary. The record of those years is burnt into 
the hearts and memories of their survivors. It is read and re- 
read with patriotic pride by their children, and will be by 
future generations till time shall be no more. To that honored 
band of veterans, whose diminishing ranks still furnish the 
noblest feature of this and every other public occasion, what 
language is needed to recall the fatigues of the march, the pri- 
vations of the camp, the shock and thunder of battle, the suf- 
ferings of the hospital and the hell of the rebel prison ? And 
even to those who in the security of home experienced none of 
these, what words can adequately revive those days of excite- 
ment and nights of wakefulness ; Avhen our green and suburban 
fields were trodden bare by the tramp of drilling battalions 
and marching regiments ; when the flag was flying continu- 
ously from every steeple and roof and doorway ; when the 
cannon would arouse us from sleep by the announcement of 
victory, or the dread tidings of disaster would fall like lead 
upon our hearts ; when the papers were hurriedly scanned 
after every battle for the lists of the killed and the wounded ; 
and the garbs of mourning and the sad faces of bereavement 
filled our streets, and darkened every public assembly ? 
Thanks be to God ! those harrowing days are past long since 
and were not in vain ! I shall not enlarge upon their history, 
but on this day of historic reminiscence I should not be par- 
doned if I neglected to give a prominent place to the part which 



41 

New Haven bore in that great conflict, the most momentous 
of modern times. Let me therefore by way of illustration, re- 
call three conspicuous episodes in the story of the war familiar 
to you all, in which citizens of New Haven rendered services to 
their country of the highest consequence. 

It was in January, 1S62, and the war was still languishing. 
The splendid armies which had gathered about Washington 
the summer previous to retrieve the disaster and disgrace of 
Bull Run were still retained in their camps, and the same 
monotonous report came month after month — " All quiet on 
the Potomac." Meanwhile the Rebel Confederacy was profit- 
ing by every day's delay to consolidate its political and mili- 
tary strength, and to concentrate the means of resistance at 
every assailable point. Troops were pouring from all quarters 
into Richmond. The Mississippi was being fortified at every 
strategic position, and a strong line of rebel posts was already 
stretched across Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Foreign 
powers, openly sympathizing with the Confederacy, were on the 
point of recognizing its independence as an accomplished fact. 
The people of the North had for months been chafing with 
impatience at the delay and its consequences, and now indig- 
nation had begun to give place to discouragement and distrust. 
Rumors of intended compromise were in the air ; charges of 
treachery against both military and civil authorities were rife, 
and a despairing cry was going up for a man who was in earn- 
est and who would strike one vigorous blow at the rebellion. 
At length the endurance of even the long suffering Lincoln 
was exhausted, and he issued his famous order requiring all 
commanding generals to be in readiness for a movement on 
February 2 2d. This order superseding all previous general 
orders, left commanders of Departments free to act. It was 
dated January 27th, and scarcely had it been given when out 
from the murky sky of the West the lightning flashed — and 
struck ! It struck the center of the rebel line from the Missis- 



42 

sippi to the mountains, and it broke it to pieces. On the 5th 
of February Fort Henry surrendered. On the i6th Fort Don- 
elson surrendered. On the 23d Nashville was abandoned. 
On the 2d of March Columbus, the gate of the river, and 
proudly entitled "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy," was 
evacuated. Thus before the day named by the President for ac- 
tion had arrived, the way had been broken open, never again 
to be closed, through which the Union armies were afterward to 
penetrate the heart and bowels of the Southern Confederacy. 
And in that day of joy and triumph there rang with acclama- 
tions throughout the loyal North and were pondered by cau- 
tious cabinets across the seas, two immortal names then first 
linked in historic conjunction, Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew 
Hull Foote, a citizen of New Haven. 

But to Foote's untiring zeal this was only a beginning. 
The Confederate forces driven from Columbus, had fallen 
down the river to Island No. 10, a stronger natural position 
and which they had fortified till they deemed it impregnable. 
Wounded and almost disabled as he was, Foote by the 15th of 
March had refitted his shattered fleet and was confronting the 
massive walls and ponderous guns of the rebel stronghold with 
his tin-clad cockle-shells. The brilliant operations of the land 
and naval forces in that investment and siege I need not de- 
scribe. The struggle was arduous but successful, and on the 
8th of April the impregnable fortress with all its garrison, guns 
and supplies surrendered to the indomitable New Havener. 

It was a splendid triumph, but it was his last. Recalled to 
the East that he m'ght enter on the duties of a higher rank and 
a wider command, he brought back a frame shattered by his 
wound, and a heart lacerated by domestic affliction. For a few 
days we saw him here and heard his cheering and inspiring 
voice, and then he left us to return no more till he came home 
wrapped in his country's flag. Slowly and sadly we laid him 
down, and left him alone with his glory. New Haven has re- 
corded in her annals many great and venerable names ; but 



43 

among them all there is not one which she should cherish with 
higher honor than that which stands for all that is pure and 
gentle in Christian character, broad and unselfish in patriot- 
ism, and brilliant in heroic achievement, Andrew Hull Foote. 

While these great events were occurring in the West there 
were ominous rumors in circulation that some mysterious and 
terrible blow was being prepared for our navy on the Atlantic 
Coast and especially for that part of it near Richmond. Night 
and day, it was said, the mechanics of the rebel capital had 
been building and equipping an invulnerable floating monster, 
which was to bear havoc and destruction to Union ships, forts, 
and towns, in an unimpeded course ; but of the particular 
shape, size or construction of this grim and terrible engine 
nothing was known or could be learned. To meet it the Union 
authorities had made and were making no adequate prepara- 
tion ; but there was one man with forethought, energy and en- 
terprise adapted to the emergency. He had received from a 
distinguished inventor and naval engineer the model of a ves- 
sel of bold and original design, without precedent in marine 
construction, but which seemed to him full of value as a means 
of encountering the expected and dreaded destroyer. He ap- 
pealed to the government for authority and means to construct 
this untried vessel but was repelled by the incredulity and the 
adverse influence of naval officials. Like Columbus at the 
Court of Spain he was offering to his country an undiscovered 
empire of power and victory, and like Columbus he clung to 
his purpose through every discouragement. At length he re- 
ceived a grudging permission to build the vessel but only at 
the risk of himself and his associates. When completed she 
was to go into action, and if by the fortune of war she should 
be sunk or captured or fail to defeat her antagonist, the builders 
should refund to the government the cost of her construction. 
These hard terms he promptly accepted — and you know the re- 
sult ! The world knows it by heart. It reads more like a ro- 



44 

mantic tale of the Orient than the sober narrative of history. 
With that first memorable conflict of heavy armored ships be- 
gan a new era in naval architecture. The shots they fired were 
indeed heard around the world. They rang with the voice of a 
Monitor in the ears of foreign powers warning them to keep 
out of the American quarrel since all their navies had turned in 
a night into pasteboard. Nor was this all. From that conflict 
sprang speedily into existence the armored and turreted fleets 
which later in the war destroyed every vestige of naval power 
on the part of the Confederacy. 

Whose were the sagacious judgment, the wise forethought, 
the persistent purpose, and the patriotic courage which by 
timely action secured these benefits to his country ? Your 
thoughts have already uttered his name. It was Cornelius 
Scranton Bushnell, a citizen of New Haven. 

The third event to which I shall allude occurred near the 
close of the war. Richmond was beleaguered. The Southern 
States had been generally subdued, and their ports mostly oc- 
cupied by Union forces. Further contest was hopeless, but the 
rebel leaders with reckless desperation were resolved to sacri- 
fice every man and every dollar in the last ditch of secession 
and slavery, and still fought on. But to keep up their strug- 
gle continual military supplies were necessary, and these could 
only be obtained from foreign sources. To these sources one 
gate still remained open. The port of Wilmington was directly 
connected with Richmond by rail and the Union armies had 
not yet been able to break that communication. Into that port 
poured blockade runners with their cargoes of arms, ammuni- 
tion and supplies of every kind, the aggregate value of which 
in 1863 alone was computed at 66,000,000 of dollars. The port 
was so situated that it could not be blockaded effectually, and 
fully alive to its importance the Confederates had fortified it 
with enormous works on which they had lavished every re- 
source of engineering and military science, until in the judg- 



45 

ment of competent critics they were stronger than the famous 
Malakoff which so long defied the combined armies of Great 
Britain and France. The work of their reduction or capture 
had hitherto seemed to the Union commanders too serious to 
undertake, but the time had now come when it was necessary 
as one of the final blows at the rebellion. A great naval and 
military armament was despatched against them, but after an 
ineffectual bombardment the commanding general of the expe- 
dition had returned with the report that their capture except 
by regular siege was impossible. Evidently here was a critical 
emergency. To abandon the attempt would be to strengthen 
the rebel courage and resources, to discredit the Union power, 
to dissatisfy the Northern people, and to postpone the end of 
the war. At all hazards those forts must be taken ; but to do it 
a leader was required second in courage and capacity to no 
other in the army. The great captain did not hesitate for a mo- 
ment. From amid the brilliant array of tried and trusted gen- 
erals at his command — from among the scores of gallant lead- 
ers who had been educated at famous military schools and 
were renowned for their long and faithful services, their signal 
ability and splendid achievements, his unerring judgment se- 
lected and sent to the task a citizen of New Haven ; one whose 
early military training had been in the New Haven Grays and 
the Second Regiment ; one who by his high character, his tried 
experience, his modesty, his ability and his earnest and steady 
purpose had long been conspicuous among his peers as the 
beau ideal of a soldier and a gentleman. He sent Alfred Howe 
Terry ; and the impossible was accomplished. 

You have reason my fellow citizens to be proud of that name. 
Sprung from New Haven stock, and identified with New 
Haven as the home of his youth and maturer years, we who 
knew him well in the earlier relations of domestic, social, and 
civil life can best appreciate how much our community in part- 
ing with him gave up to the higher claims of our country. 
And now, when after so long an absence his distinguished pub- 



46 

lie career has ended, his heart turns back to his boyhood's 
home with as warm an affection as when, a slim and blue-eyed 
youth, he recorded deeds in the Town Clerk's office or marched 
with shouldered musket in the ranks of the Ncav Haven Grays. 
Warmly we greet his return to the shadows of the old 
familiar elms and pray that his declining years may be as tran- 
quil and happy as his active life has been useful and glorious. 

I have made special reference to these events in the war his- 
tory of our town because they were occurrences peculiarly 
striking in their character and of great and general importance 
in their consequences. To select even these seems almost in- 
vidious, for the annals of New Haven shine on every pagCAvith 
deeds of others of her sons, living and dead, well worthy of 
conspicuous mention. She proudly remembers them all. All 
honor to the surviving actors in that great struggle ! May 
they long remain among us to enjoy the fruits of their valor 
and the gratitude of their fellow citizens, and far distant be the 
day when our children's cliildren shall cease to say " There 
goes a Union veteran !" 

And for the unretixrning brave ! For those who went out 
from us with a sacred devotion and yielded up their lives not 
knowing whether or not they died in vain ! Oh that their 
eyes might look for an hour on what we behold this day ! On 
a restored Union ! a slave-emancipated Republic ! and a re- 
united people growing daily, let us hope, in a strengthening 
bond of brotherhood ! But useless is the aspiration ! No call 
but that of the resurrection morning will reach them where in 
unknown graves or beneath time worn tablets they sleep, our 
heroes sleep, — sleep ! But not forgotten ! That granite shaft 
which we have so lately consecrated to the fame of the living 
and dead, and which from far away over land and sea is the 
first object that greets the eye to mark the position of New 
Haven bears witness to the world that she dwells near to the 
thought of her heroes, and for her chosen landmark erects 



47 

their monument. On a lofty and eternal pedestal upheaved 
by nature in one of its mightiest convulsions, it appropriately 
stands : apart, like a holy thought, from the bustle of the 
market place, yet full in view from every quarter of the busy 
citv, outlined against the clear sky of Heaven, forever pointing 
upward to the empyrean. In our hours of business it catches 
our casual glance ; and when in the enjoyment of leisure and 
recreation we stand at its base and look abroad on the abound- 
ing beauty of the prospect that lies spread before us, its near 
presence dominates the scene and hallows it with its noble 
lesson. As the cross reminds us at once of a mighty sacrifice, 
and of the priceless blessings that it purchased, so that granite 
shaft will express to the remotest posterity both the cost and 
the value of constitutional freedom. Never until that lovely 
landscape shall fade into everlasting night, and those solid 
rocks sink back into the abyss from which they rose, may that 
lesson be lost on the sons of New Haven, or their gratitude 
fail TO THE Defenders of " Liberty an® Union, now and 

FOREVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE." 

A review, however, hasty, of the last half century's changes in 
New Haven would be incomplete without a reference to her 
dethronement as a co-capital of the State after holding that 
dignified position for a hundred and seventy-four years. It 
was the culminating triumph of our eager and aspiring little 
sister on the shad-producing river in a long series of family 
differences. From the time when in 1663 the New Haven 
Colony suddenly found herself already annexed to the juris- 
diction of her wide awake rival, an unremitting vigilance Avas 
always necessary on her part, though not always exercised 
and not often successful, to secure the few crumbs of privilege 
and opportunity which fell on our side of the family table. 
There were early contests about the half capital question, and 
on the removal of the college, and later ones about canal ex- 
tensions and railroad extensions and Connecticut river bridges 
4 



48 

and others too numerous to mention. But these had all gone 
by and there remained on the placid surface of New Haven 
equanimity not a ripple from the last family breeze. In 1S69 
appeared the first symptoms of approaching trouble. The 
Legislature of the State became discontented with its accom- 
modations both at New Haven and Hartford and uttered the 
indiscriminate malediction "a plague on both your houses." 
Here was our ambitious little sister's opportunity and she was 
as usual, equal to the occasion. As the daughter of Herodias 
danced before Herod and was told to name her reward even to 
the half of the kingdom, so our active little sister danced 
wisely and well before the Sovereign People of the State and 
obtained in the end her rival's head in a charger. But the fond 
old State was not allowed to stop with this gift alone. Instead 
of the half a million of dollars which it had originally con- 
templated as its expenditure for the new capitol nearly two 
and a quarter millions were finally cajoled from its treasury 
and applied in building and grounds for the adornment of 
Hartford. But let justice be done. Let not the impartiality of 
the. State be impeached. If Hartford was noticed in the dis- 
tribution of favors, New Haven was not forgotten. As our 
good old mother State removed the scepter of dignity from our 
hands she made over to us with thovightful liberality her inter- 
est in a certain sacred white elephant, to remind us of the 
stat-iis quo ante. 

But who would be so ill-natured as to begrudge to our 
bright little sister (no longer, we trust, a rival) the advantages 
she secured by her smartness and enterprise. We congratulate 
her on her beautiful park, and especially on her showy and 
brass mounted capitol building. Happy and proud may she 
well be to survey it ; and greatly to be admired is that spirited 
figure perched on its pinnacle, a brazen daughter of Herodias 
idealized as the genius of Hartford, gracefully poised on agile 
foot, bearing in one hand her own wreath of sovereignty and 
triumphantly waving in the other the crown or scalp that has 



49 

just been plucked from her decapitated rival. It is an apt and 
happy conception ; and while we all good humoredly enjoy it 
together, let the two sister cities embrace each other with that 
ancient and genuine affection which no rivalries can ever dis- 
turb and mutually breathe the benediction, " Let us have 
Peace." 

As we approach the close of this retrospect there float before 
our mental vision the images of those who in 1838 or later 
were prominent in our community and who are with us no 
more. The proprieties of the occasion, no less than the 
prompting of our hearts require that we should pay them the 
passing tribute of our remembrance. Yet as the long cata- 
logue of notable names, death's garnerings for fifty years, 
passes through our minds we find it impossible to refer to all, 
and impossible also to make a satisfactory discrimination. In 
the limited time therefore that remains I must confine my allu- 
sions to a few of those who filled distinguished places in our 
local world of religion, letters, politics or science, or who by 
reason of special benefits conferred on our community have a 
particular claim to commemoration. 

And first of all, standing on this consecrated spot, I should 
be false to my own sentiments and to yours if there fell from 
my lips any other name before that of him whose memory is so 
associated with this edifice, and so inseparably identified with 
all public and especially all historic occasions in New Haven. 
That majestic figure ! that benignant countenance ! that com- 
manding and inspiring voice ! Their influence still lingers 
within these walls and fills this place with his presence ! On 
yonder tablet those who knew him in the sacred relation of 
pastor have inscribed their tribute to those traits of character 
which made his ministrations in that holy office a blessing not 
only to themselves but to mankind, and which wherever he is 
known have associated a loftier spirit and a purer radiance with 
the illustrious name of Bacon. But it is as the citizen of New 



50 

Haven, as the embodiment of her historic spirit, as the orator 
on her civic occasions and as the commanding personality in 
her public assemblies that we miss him to-day. In these capaci- 
ties Dr. Bacon filled through many years a place in this com- 
munity which it is hardly probable will ever again be occu- 
pied. Nor was his influence confined to the boundaries of our 
own municipality. From his writings Abraham Lincoln re- 
ceived his first impressions of the evils of slavery, and had he 
rendered no other service to mankind than that, his country 
should hold his memory in everlasting gratitude. And though 
all other acts of his life should fade in time from human recol- 
lection, yet so long as " laws, freedom, truth and faith in 
God " have power among men, so long will that beautiful lyric 
which we have sung to-day perpetuate in every American heart 
the name and memory of Leonard Bacon. 

In this imperfect necrology, other names connected with the 
clerical profession, hardly less prominent in their day than 
that of Dr. Bacon must be rapidly passed over. I can only 
allude to Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor, who died in 1858, a resi- 
dent of New Haven for 36 years and whose fame as an elo- 
quent preacher and as the founder of a new school of divinity 
known as the New Haven School was unsurpassed two gener- 
ations ago by any in the country. I can only mention also 
the Rev. Dr. Harry Croswell, rector of Trinity church, who 
also died in 1858, a venerable, apostolic man of grand and dig- 
nified presence, a born leader of men, most deeply and justly 
revered by his people. Other pastors of long standing and in- 
fluence who have passed away in the midst of their work were 
the pious and devoted Cleveland, who died in 1866 after a 
ministry here of 32 years ; and the genial and saintly Dutton, 
who died in the same year after a pastorate of 28 years. 
Faithful and able ministers and spiritvial fathers of other de- 
nominations who might well be mentioned have also been 
gathered to their rest, but these by their long residence had be- 
come specially identified with New Haven. They were known 



51 

and honored by our entire population, and departing left be- 
hind them footsteps and more than footsteps on our local life 
and character. 

In the ranks of the legal profession the most conspicuous in 
1838 were Daggett, Staples, Simeon and Roger Baldwin, 
Hitchcock, White, Charles and Ralph Ingersoll, Kimberly and 
Townsend. All these have long since been gathered to their 
fathers. Of those who came later and are also gone I may 
name as most prominent, Blackman, Button, Osborne, Bristol, 
Foster, Ives, Wright and Beach. Among the forensic leaders 
of the bar for a quarter of a century those who reached the 
highest eminence in professional and public life were Ralph 
I. Ingersoll and Roger S. Baldwin. These two great advo- 
cates were often antagonized in court and presented an inter- 
esting contrast. Ingersoll was keen, graceful, dramatic and 
polished and impassioned in oratory. Baldwin was stiff in 
manner and angular in gesture, but in diction splendid and 
powerful as the thundering of great guns. Both attained to 
high positions in public life. Baldwin as Governor of Con- 
necticut and United States Senator, and Ingersoll as member 
of Congress and United States Minister to Russia. Baldwin 
died in 1863 and Ingersoll in 1872. 

In turning to the mortuary record of the medical profession 
we seem to pass in a measvire from public to domestic history. 
The relations of the family physician to the community are so 
purely personal, that the mere enumeration of those in most 
general practice who have passed away will suffice to awaken 
in every mind its own special memories of professional skill 
and fidelity. I name them in the order of their departure, 
Of the allopathic school — Dr. Timothy Beers, Dr. Eli Ives, 
Dr. Charles Hooker, Dr. Jonathan Knight, Dr. Worthington 
Hooker, Dr. Nathan B. Ives, Dr. Charles L. Ives, Dr. Edwin 
Park, Dr. Pliny A. Jewett, Dr. David A. Tyler. Of the 
homoeopathic school — Dr. Charles H. Skiff, Dr. E. T. Foote. 

Amono- the men of letters whose lives have ended during 



52 

the past half century the first in order is James A. Hillhouse, 
the poet ; a son of that James Hillhouse surnamed the 
Sachem, illustrious in New Haven annals. His compositions 
were widely read and admired in their day, and he is still re- 
garded as among the best of the earlier American poets. 

A more distinguished name is that of Noah Webster, who 
died in 1843. In this day of broad and accurate scholarship a 
disposition has appeared to depreciate the great merits of Dr. 
Webster as a philologist and to overlook the immense value 
of his services to the English language in America. That he 
should have fallen into some errors is not strange, in view of 
his limited facilities for research ; and as to his orthographical 
reforms it is undeniable that many of them are becoming 
universally accepted on both sides of the Atlantic. To the 
extraordinary diffusion of Webster's Spelling Book and 
Webster's Dictionary it has been owing more perhaps than to 
any other cause that the development of local dialects in this 
country has been prevented, and the importance of this cir- 
cumstance on our national unity can hardly be over estimated. 
To these books is also largely due the fact that the purest form 
of English is spoken in Amei^ca ; and it is a matter of local 
pride to us that for two generations past, New Haven, the 
source from which these books have been continually emanat- 
ing in their course of constant revision and improvement, has 
thus been and is to-day the fountain head of linguistic 
authority — the "well of English undefiled " for all English, 
speaking peoples. We may therefore confidently affirm that 
the purest form of English on earth is that which corresponds 
most closely with the New Haven vernacular. 

For this distinction we are indebted primarily to the great 
Lexicographer but not to him alone. Other eminent scholars, 
some of whom are still living among us, have taken up and 
carried on his work. Most of those who have ceased from 
their labors were connected with Yale College, and to these as 
well as to other distinguished professors in that institution 



53 

who by their learning, ability and character gave New Haven 
a world-wide reputation for many years, I shall make refer- 
ence in another place. I may mention here, however, as one 
of the men of letters who were co-laborers on Webster's Dic- 
tionary, that eccentric celebrity, compound of poet, scientist 
and linguist, Dr. James G. Percival, who, after having im- 
mured himself from human sight in New Haven for several 
5"ears, emerged from his voluntary dungeon and went to Wis- 
consin where he died in 1856. 

In association with departed men of letters the names of two 
distinguished and honored citizens should be included, not 
only on account of their long and valuable careers in educa- 
tional work but from their prominent positions in the com- 
munity and great public services. Hon. Aaron N. Skinner 
was Mayor of the city from 1850 to 1854 and was always 
prominent and indefatigable in every work of public improve- 
ment. General William H. Russell held the chief command 
in the domestic military service of the State during the civil 
war, and his personal labors during that period as well as the 
assistance rendered by the pupils of his military school in the 
drilling of volunteers were of high importance. More dis- 
tinctively literary careers were followed by the Rev. John S. 
C. Abbott, that pleasing Avriter and estimable man, who died 
a citizen of our town ; and that excellent historian of New 
Haven, whose recent loss we so greatly deplore, the Rev. 
Edward E. Atwater. 

Time will not permit this record to be prolonged as it 
might be, by the enumeration of many noteworthy names that 
crowd upon our recollection. Names of inventors ; like that of 
Charles Goodyear, whose romantic story reminds us in its 
pathos and its trivimph of Palissy the Potter, but whose services 
to mankind were incomparably more magnificent. Names 
drawn from the ranks of commercial, mercantile and manu- 
facturing life ; names of artists, publishers, constructors and 
others who by their genius, their enterprise or their pviblic 



54 

spirit have adorned and benefited this community. Dav by 
day as we pass through our streets we recognize their memo- 
rials on every side and speak their names to our children. 

Nevertheless it is fit that we should recall with a special 
mention and gratitude those who by unusual benefactions to 
public or private objects have a claim beyond others to the 
thanks and lasting remembrance of posterity. Who can 
forget on this anniversary day the benevolent heart of Brew- 
ster, and the generous bounty of Heaton, two names enshrined 
in the orphans' home and hallowed with the orphans' bless- 
ings ? Who does not gratefully recall the dignified form of 
Philip Marett, who, though but a stranger and sojourner 
among us, poured out his beneficent spirit in wise and princely 
bequests to our local institutions and benevolences ? How 
could we fail to remember the splendid and varied munifi- 
cence of Sheffield and Farnam, and the generous gifts of 
Street ? And as our thoughts extend beyond these more strik- 
ing examples, they recur to the judicious liberalities of Win- 
chester and Fellowes and the thoughtful bequests of Fitch. I 
mention only the dead, but as I speak there rise in every mind 
the thoughts of others still living to whom New Haven is 
indebted for noble benefactions. We remember one, a life- 
long citizen who has passed among us a spotless and honored 
career ; and we are reminded also of a recent act of splendid 
liberality by one who, born within the limits of the ancient 
colony, and formerly a resident of this town, has never amid 
the associations of a distinguished and successful life lost his 
affection for New Haven nor his interest in her institutions. 
At the next centennial anniversary their names will be fitly 
and gratefully spoken. 

In all that I have thus far said I have made no reference to 
the crowning glory of New Haven, which might well on this 
occasion have had the foremost place. I mean that great and 
venerable institution whose honored head is so fitly called to 



55 

preside at this birthday gathering and which, almost coeval 
with this community is inseparably blended with it as an 
integral part of its existence. What would New Haven be 
without old Mother Yale, for is she not indeed the alma mater 
of us all ? From that early day when the young town, poor in 
goods but rich in resolution and faith, brought home from 
Saybrook the maiden college which had been its first and con- 
stant love, and entered with her here on a united life of mutual 
struggle and mutual affection has she not been true to her 
allegiance ? Has she not faithfully fulfilled the promise of 
that youthful union ? In sickness and in health, for richer, 
for poorer, for better and for worse, she has identified herself 
with the welfare of this community, and her true-hearted 
devotion has brought to it a wealth of blessings and honor. 
If New Haven has always enjoyed a special renown among 
the cities of our land for beauty, for culture, for morality, for 
intellectual privileges, and for all other advantages which 
bring reputation, wealth and happiness to a community, is it 
not largely because its name is every where synonymous with 
Yale ! There is not a citizen of New Haven who does not 
derive in some way a motherly blessing from her presence. 
There is not one however ignorant, however degraded, who 
does not instinctively feel that any disaster to her would be to 
him in some way a personal calamity. To-day, then, New Haven 
rejoices in the prosperity of Yale for the last half century. Her 
progress is our progress — her glory is our glory. Every new 
advance which she secures in resources, — every new accession 
to the ranks of her instructors, is a gain to the social, the intel- 
lectual and the material wealth of New Haven. As we look 
back on the list of those eminent and noble men who during 
the past two generations have gone upward from her service 
we realize how closely they identified themselves with every 
interest of this community and how much it suffered in their 
loss. We remember the venerable Day, the modest and gentle 
Fitch, the elder and the younger Silliman, the earlier and the 



56 

later Kingsley. We remember Goodrich and Hadley and 
Gibbs and the ever lamented Thacher. We see again the 
kindly faces of Olmstead, and Larned and Norton. We recall 
the brilliant Herrick and the faithful Warner, and the young 
and promising Porter, and Packard, both too early lost ! — 
New Haveners all ! Nor do we think of these alone. We 
remember also two venerated men, for so many years the 
revered presidents of Yale who still remain among us ; whose 
lives have been a benediction to New Haven and whose re- 
nown has long shed luster on her name. Far distant be the 
day when we shall see them no more ! but when their summons 
shall come we cannot doubt that they will respond to the call 
with a serener joy because they will leave the ancient College 
developed by their labors into a great and flourishing Univer- 
sity, ever enlarging in usefulness and influence, ever growing 
stronger in the esteem of their fellow citizens, and safe in its 
prosperity under so wise and steady a guidance. 

And now as we turn from the contemplation of the past and 
cast our eyes forward toward the impenetrable future we can- 
not thrust aside the portentous but vain inquiry. What for 
the next half century lies before our Commonwealth ? New 
Haven faces the coming years not now like a rustic youth 
inexperienced in the rude turmoil of the busy world, but as 
having itself become an active and important portion of that 
world, and it must be ready to meet all coming responsibilities. 
If its population shall continue to increase during the next 
fifty years in the same ratio as during the last, it will amount 
in 1938 to some 300,000 souls. The questions what will then 
be the appearance of our town or city ? what its moral and 
intellectual characteristics ? and what its influence ? are not 
mere matters of idle speculation. Their answer will depend 
mainly upon the wisdom, the virtue and the public spirit of 
those who are now living within its limits. It is we who are 
to decide for instance what will be the outward aspect which 



57 

New Haven will present in 193S. Will it be then as it has 
been in the past, peerless for beauty, unrivalled for its pictur- 
esque streets and suburbs ? or will it have fallen into the 
second, third, or fourth rank for elegance, taste, and public 
improvements ? Let me seize this occasion to press the imme- 
diate urgency of these inquiries. At the present day the 
important bearing of municipal adornment on municipal 
growth, health, prosperity and happiness is well understood. 
As other cities of our land are advancing in wealth and enter- 
prise they are also increasing their attractions as dwelling 
places by public improvements which are rapidly raising the 
standard of urban beauty, and which threaten not only to 
deprive New Haven of her present supremacy in this respect 
but to leave her far in the rear. The natural charms of our 
situation, the extent and variety of beavitiful scenery and views 
which lie all around us and almost within our present city 
limits are unexcelled in the world. It only needs a wnse 
liberality and public spirit on the part of our land owners 
combined with prompt and energetic action by the municipal- 
ity to secure incomparable sites for public parks and other 
open places within our borders and on our outskirts at an 
inconsiderable cost, which, if neglected, will in fifty years be 
covered by squalid tenements and a swarming population. 
Every consideration impels us to take speedy action not only 
for the preservation to New Haven of her traditional renown 
for beauty, but to make her unsurpassable by any of her rivals 
for all time. In no way can we so surely earn the applause of 
posterity. No burden of expense that we can transmit, if any 
must be transmitted, will be so cheerfully borne. For assur- 
ance of this we need not go beyond our own experience. 
What more inspiring change in our surroundings has occurred 
in the last fifty years than the transformation of the East Rock 
range from a shaggy and inaccessible wilderness to a thing of 
beauty and a joy forever ? What expenditures of public 
money have been so popular and so little felt as those which 



58 

have related to its improvement ? Fortunate will be every 
citizen who shall be remembered by the unborn millions of 
future years as having aided, whether in a public or private 
capacity, in securing for them so noble and beneficial a gift as 
a public park or pleasure ground ! And thrice fortunate they 
who by special munificence or prominence in enhancing the 
beauty and value of such a blessing, shall have reared for them- 
selves an everlasting memorial ! Countless generations will 
roam with delight over East Rock Park, and each in its turn 
will pass away and be forgotten, but imperishable as the 
mountain itself, fresh as its ever renewing verdure, and fra- 
grant as its flowers, will cling forever to its cliffs and valleys 
and winding ways the names of Farnam and of English. 

The other inquiry to which I have referred, what will be the 
moral and intellectual characteristics of New Haven at the 
300th anniversary of its settlement ? is not less important and 
interesting, but its answer is less under our immediate control. 
For in respect to these our community is inseparably associated 
with the great outside world in which irresistible forces are 
re-moulding beliefs, re-organizing institutions and changing 
the moral and physical face of the earth. We are driving for- 
ward with the rest under the sway of these same forces, but 
whither we do not know. We only know that in the thick 
clouds which shroud our onward course we hear confused 
sovinds of inspiring and of threatening voices ; the hymns and 
paeans of a higher civilization, of peace on earth, good will to 
men, and the cries of conflict, the mutterings of social dis- 
order and anarchy. Are these the signs of new and better 
developments growing out of the ancient order ? or has the 
impetuous rush which has marked our advance carried society 
forward too rapidly for its powers of cohesion ? and is the 
next half century to witness a pause, a reaction, a partial 
breaking up of social elements and a more or less turbulent 
reorganization on newly developed lines ? Time alone can 



59 

answer. Yet let us trust that through all mutations for good 
or evil, New Haven, fixed on those eternal foundations which 
our forefathers planted — "laws, freedom, truth and faith in 
God," will stand like a figure of Liberty lighting the World. 
By the right and the necessity of her moral and intellectual 
prominence she must guide the way in every path of advance- 
ment and lift on high her beacon torch in whatever darkness 
and storm. 



Advance then, ye coming years, ye approaching generations ! 
We fear not the unknown powers that drive your heaving 
waves, for He who transplanted sustains and will sustain. As 
we stand on your shore and peer into your mists this day for 
some augury of the future of our beloved Commonwealth, we 
seem to discern looming out of their murky depths the vision 
of a phantom ship ! Not like that gloomy specter which our 
forefathers watched with tears and trembling, " her masts fall- 
ing by the board, her hulk careening and overset," and her 
fragments finally "vanishing in a smoaky cloud;" but rather 
we behold her with the eye of a confident faith coming bravely 
on, " her canvass and her colors all abroad" and freighted to 
the water's edge with prosperity and blessings ! And as we 
look she triumphantly swings to her moorings ; she rides 
safe at anchor in the waters of a greater and more glorious 
New Haven ! 




Reunion of the Lancasterian School. 



At the close of Mr. Blake's address, about 350 former pupils 
of Mr. John E. Lovell met in the large hall at No. 48 Orange 
street, to welcome their aged instructor who a few days before 
had entered upon his 94th year. His connection with the Lan- 
casterian school dates as far back as its establishment in 1822, 
and was continued (with an intermission of two and a half 
years) till the year 1857, a period of more than 30 years, during 
which a large number of those who to-day represent to a con- 
siderable extent the intelligence and business activity of New 
Haven were under his instruction. The name Lancasterian 
was derived from Mr. Joseph Lancaster of England, who about 
the year 1798 devised a method by which, on the monitorial 
system, a school, however large, might be managed by one 
master, and the expense for each pupil be thus reduced to a 
small sum. Among the young men whom he trained was John 
E. Lovell, who was led by Mr. Lancaster to come to this coun- 
try, and on his recommendation as being amply and peculiarly 
qualified for the work, was employed by the school committee 
to establish and conduct a school of this character in New 
Haven. It w-as opened in the latter part of May, 1822, in the 
basement of the old Methodist Church which occupied the 
northwest corner of what was then called the Upper Green. 
In November of that year the Committee reported that, as the 
establishment of a Lancasterian school was regarded by many 
as visionary, the room, which was neither sufficiently large nor 
light, was only temporarily engaged. There were at that date 
about 350 scholars between six and fourteen years of age and 
about 50 more were applying for admission. The tuition, 
originally one dollar each quarter, was shortly reduced to fifty 
cents. The Committee in closing their report, spoke highly of 
the progress and good order of the school, and recommended 
the erection of a building capable of containing six or seven 
hundred boys. It was signed bv S. J. Hitchcock, Andrew Kid- 



6i 

ston, John Scott, Samuel Wadsworth, Wm. H. Ellis, Anthony 
H. Sherman, Wm. Mix and James English. It was not till 
1827 that their recommendation was carried into effect. In that 
year a new school house was erected on a lot on the corner of 
Orange and Wall street, the gift of Mr. Titus Street for that 
purpose, and here the Lancasterian School was held till the 
year 1857, when it gave place to the system of graded schools 
at present established. Mr. Lovell on retiring at the close of 
his long and honorable work conducted for a few years a 
private school which was largely attended, and subsequently 
removed to Waterbury, Conn., where he now resides. 

The reunion of the Lancasterian boys was a great success in 
every respect and will never be forgotten by those who partici- 
pated in it. After the collation provided by the Committee, 
at which a blessing was invoked by the Rev. S. J. Merwin, 
the meeting was called to order by Mr. John C. Bradley, chair- 
man of the Committee of Arrangements, who nominated the 
Hon. Henry B. Harrison, late Governor of Connecticut, a for- 
mer pupil of Mr. Lovell and for many years his assistant, as 
president of the meeting. 

Gov. Harrison on taking the chair was received with great 
applause and said : 

Gentlemen : — With especial pleasure and pride do I accept 
the honor of presiding over this remarkable assembly. But I 
repudiate the title of "president." I shall claim, for this after- 
noon, a more honorable title, once well known in your school, 
although it afterwards fell into disuse. I shall claim here the 
title, and exercise the functions, of " Monitor General of Order, 
Time and Place " in the Lancasterian School. 

Take notice now that order is to be preserved, and that if it 
should be violated in any instance the offender will be directed 
to walk up to the door of the " Little Room " and stand there 
vmtil Mr. Lovell can attend to him. 

It almost brings the water into our eyes to think that after 
all these years we are once more together — boys again — in the 
presence of our beloved master. Boys again ! How much 
that signifies ! Some of us look back forty years, many of us 
fifty years, and more than one of us sixty years at least, to the 
time when we first became schoolboys in the Lancasterian 
School. And as Ave so look back, what memories swell in 
upon us ; memories of winter and spring and summer and 



62 

autumn. Once more we see the little fellow tumbling out of 
bed in the cold winter morning, fearful lest he may get late to 
school. He hurries down his breakfast while the careful 
mother packs his dinner-pail. She helps him put on his over- 
coat, ties the long woollen comforter about his neck, covers 
his hands with the thick red mittens that his aunt has knit for 
him, and sends him on his way. He reaches the school-house, 
plunges down into the basement (you remember its vuieven 
brick floor), hangs up his coat, cap and pail, and hastens into 
the school-room by the back stairway. The clock strikes, the 
doors are shut, a chapter in the Bible is read by Mr. Lovell, 
and then the hum of work begins. 

When the studies of the morning are over we adjourn for 
dinner. Then the basement becomes a place for eating and 
fun and frolic, and also, to no small extent, a provision- 
exchange where the superfluous cold sausage is swapped off 
for the extra piece of pie, and the russet apple for the bright 
yellow, puckery, delicious " Jonah " pear. 

The bell rings, the exercises of the afternoon begin, and at 
last, when " school lets out " we run off to the canal near by, 
or to Hillhouse Basin, then seemingly so far off, there to skate 
and often to indulge in the exciting and perilous amusement 
of " running bendebows." Or else, if snow is on the ground, 
two great battalions are organized for a snow-balling fight be- 
tween the "up-towners" and the " down-towners." In my 
day, chief among the leaders of the "up-towners" were the 
Broadway boys — especially the LeForge boys and Bill Stark 
and Charley Brigden ; while the " down-towners " Avere headed 
by Harry Lewis, George Rowland, John Graham, Sam Russell 
and others Avhom many of you will remember. While the 
battle raged we put the streets into a state of siege. No lives 
were lost, but bloody noses were not uncommon. And when 
the victory was won, up went the shout of triumph. There 
was no " Rah, rah, rah," about it, but our cry was the grand 
old "hurrah" that had descended to those Lancasterian School 
boys from their ancestors, resounding from century to century 
over a thousand battles and a thousand victories. When I hear 
this " Rah, rah, rah," in these days as a substitute for the old 
war-cry of the English-speaking races I almost fear that our 
national virility is beginning to die out. 

The spring came, and with it "marble time." The "little 



63 

ring" or the "big ring" was marked out upon the ground. 
Forth from the pockets came the slate-colored marbles, and the 
black ones that had been carefully manufactured by wrapping 
the others in greased rags and baking them in hot ashes ; the 
"annies," too — (white, with thin red streaks,) and also the lit- 
tle "sneaks." And then from the crouching players were 
heard the frequent exclamations, " fen inchins over," " knuckle 
down," "fire strong." And so the game went on. Then came 
"button time" and "top time" and "one old cat" and "two 
old cat," and " prisoner's base " and "base ball," &c., &c., as 
we all so well remember — and afterwards, in due order, the 
sports of summer and autumn. Ah ! those were happy days. 

The Lancasterian School was a great factor in the life of this 
town. It has made a permanent mark upon our local history. 
It was a great public school, not the only public school, but 
pre-eminently the public school of New Haven. Our popula- 
tion was then small and homogeneous, containing very few 
rich people and very few poor people, but consisting substan- 
tially of families in comfortable circumstances ; and the chil- 
dren of those parents filled the Lancasterian School. The 
education which they received there was in some respects 
greatly inferior to that which is furnished by our public schools 
to-day. There was no physiology, and no " ology " of any 
kind, no philosophy, no Latin and no Greek. Nothing was 
taught except reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, grammar, 
geography, drawing and elocution. But this system of study, 
inferior as it may now be considered, was up to the public 
school standard of that day. And whatever else may be said 
about it, this at least is true — that the great and manly work 
which has been done all over the world in past and present 
ages by the great English-speaking races has been mainly 
done by men whose early education was no better than that 
which you obtained in the Lancasterian School. 

The discipline of the school, too, was different from that 
which prevails in the public schools to-day. It would now be 
called severe, for it involved a free, though not cruel, use of 
corporal punishment. But that kind of discipline was at that 
time considered the proper one. Undoubtedly it was inferior 
in some particulars to the softer and gentler methods now in 
vogue. But if in comparison with the present system it had 
its disadvantages, we may fairly doubt v/hether it had not some 
5 



64 

advantages also. It did not degrade the boy, for in those days 
he did not associate with it the idea of degradation. On the 
other hand it cultivated in him — (for the public sentiment of 
the school required him to take his punishment like a little 
man without whining or whimpering) — it cultivated in him 
patience, endurance, obedience and courage. There is in Eng- 
lish literature no finer figure than "Tom Brown of Rugby," 
and you Lancasterian School boys got, inside of your school 
and out of it, precisely the same kind of discipline that made 
"Tom Brown" the manly boy he was and the manly man he 
became. 

And what was the result of all this training ? It made good 
boys and good men. Among all the hundreds of boys that I 
have known in the school I remember at this moment only two 
who turned out badly. Of course there were more, but they 
must have been few. One of those two boys I did once meet 
in a very bad place after he had become a man. Your cunning 
smile, Mr. White, is quite intelligible. You are thinking that I 
should not have met that boy in that bad place if I had not been 
in the same bad place myself. But let me assure you, gentle- 
men, upon my honor, that, although I met him in a bad place, 
he was on the inside of the bars and I on the outside. Well, 
those Lancasterian boys have spread all over the country and 
even into other parts of the world, and it is perfectly safe to 
say that, with very few exceptions, they have become sound, 
intelligent, upright men, faithfully doing the work that has 
been set before them. 

We miss many of them whom we had hoped to see here 
to-day, and among them two especially who, although invited, 
have not been able to meet us. One of those two is Luther 
Bradley. Many of you remember him. He was a quiet and 
shy boy, but he had the right stuff in him. He went west, and 
when the war broke out he enlisted in the army. At the end 
of the war he had attained the rank of General — a rank which 
he gained not by political influence but by fighting his way, 
through many battles, all the way up, sprinkling his blood 
along the line. There is another one — of all the Lancasterian 
boys perhaps the most beloved. I can see him now sitting on 
his stool, monitor of class O and P. I can see him there as 
clearly as I can see any one of you at this moment — a delicate 
and slender boy, with light hair, pale, grave face, large eyes 



65 

and a large head. I have known him and watched him from 
that hour to this. The State of Connecticut lias produced her 
full share of great men and great soldiers, but she has never 
produced an abler man, a more accomplished gentleman or a 
more brilliant soldier than the hero of Fort Fisher, Alfred H. 
Terry. 

This is Founders' Day. In celebrating it we are honoring 
the deeds of the founders of this town. Among them was 
Ezekiel Cheever who, as soon as he had got on shore, estab- 
lished, as one of the main foundations of the new Republic, 
the first public school of New Haven. We are celebrating 
with our fellow-citizens the foundation of that school, but we 
ar©- also celebrating by ourselves here the foundation of 
another and greater school. Ezekiel Cheever and his scholars 
have been dead for two hundred years, but — wonderful as the 
fact is — the founder of the Lancasterian School, who established 
it sixty-six years ago, unites with us in this celebration. The 
founder is here, and his boys are here, after all that long lapse 
of time. Probably a similar incident has never occurred before 
in this country, or, perhaps, in any other. And what shall I 
say of the dear master himself — God bless him ? I cannot 
utter, and will not try to utter, all that you and I feel towards 
him at this moment. Infirmities have come upon him. He 
cannot hear all your kind words. He cannot clearly see your 
faces looking so full of affection upon him. But in other 
respects his health is sound and we may reasonably hope that 
his boys may yet celebrate with him the centennial anniversary 
of his birth. His mind is still clear. His heart is as warm arid 
generous as ever ; and he is now, as he always was, the model 
of an upright, honorable, and most courtly gentleman. This 
is the happiest day of his life. I call for three cheers for 
John E. Lovell. 

They were given with a will and three times repeated. 

Ex-Governor James E. English, one of the first members 
of the Lancasterian School, was then gracefully introduced 
by the Chairman as one who has held the highest positions 
and gained them by earning them. Mr. Monitor, he said, 
may I be permitted to address the school ? I remember per- 
fectly that one day in 1822 a young man called at my father's 
house and interested him in the establishment of a school on 
a new system. That young man was our old teacher, Mr. John 



66 

E. Lovell, then twenty-seven years old. I became one of his 
first pupils and was present when the school was opened. I 
can bear witness to the difficulty of the task he undertook of 
organizing 240 boys who attended the first day and of whom 
he knew nothing and of making them orderly and studious 
pupils. Parents could not at first understand how so small 
a man could have so much influence and control over them, 
as he certainly had. The school was an object of public 
curiosity. He made rules and those rules he caused to be 
obeyed. One of them I recollect was that the boys must not 
play on the lower green, because the grass on it was sold by 
the town. Up to the year 1822 the town of New Haven had 
not invested a mill in a school building, and considerable 
difficulty was found in securing a room sufficiently large. I 
remember my obligations to Mr. Lovell with great pleasure 
and can only say, in closing, that I should like to go to school 
to hira again. 

The next speaker was Judge Henry E. Pardee, who was 
appropriately introduced by the chairman, and said : When 
Mr. Lovell selected me to succeed John Lovell Smith as 
instructor in the school, in which position I remained seven 
years, it was only one instance of his many acts of kindness to 
his pupils. To him I owe, more than anyone else, the oppor- 
tunities I have had in life. Notwithstanding the improve- 
ments in methods of teaching, it does not appear that the average 
boys now sent out from our schools give promise of becom- 
ing more successful than those educated under Mr. Lovell. 
He was always on the lookout for the good side of a boy. 
This was one secret of his success, and the touch of his hand 
was always an inspiration to me. 

The venerable instructor, in honor of whom the meeting Avas 
held, then rose and begged leave to retire on account of 
fatigue. " Gentlemen," he added, " I want to thank you for 
the kindness you have shown me to-day. This is the happiest 
moment of my life, and I feel like saying, now let thy servant 
depart in peace." As he was escorted by Governor English 
to the carriage provided for him, the whole assemblage rose 
and gave him three parting cheers. 

Professor George E. Day, of the Yale Divinity School, on 
being called upon, said : 

This day not only brings us nearer our old and well- 



67 

beloved instructor, but nearer to each other, in a common 
bond of union. The opening of the Lancasterian School 
sixty-six years ago was a great event in the history of New 
Haven. Boys who had been scattered in fifteen or twenty 
small schools were brought together, " up-towners " and 
" down-towners " alike, with all the advantages of a large 
school and the opportunities of common sympathies and a 
wider acquaintance. The unifying influence of this change 
upon the boys of New Haven has never ceased, and is repre- 
sented to-day by the large gathering present. In looking 
back to the opening of the school, at which it was my lot to be 
present, I am impressed with certain leading ideas of Mr. 
Lovell which were made prominent at the outset in its semi- 
military organization, viz : the importance of order, neatness, 
obedience and reverence. The inspection of hands in the long 
line extending from the old Methodist church to the corner of 
the North or United church, the orderly march into the cellar- 
like school-room, the reverential reading of the Scriptures by 
the instructor, the inscription in large letters, " A place for 
everything and everything in its place," and the prompt obedi- 
ence required and enforced were an education in themselves. 
Combined with the personal activity of the teacher, his genius 
for organization and his courtly manners, they contributed 
largely to the success of the school. 

It has been my hope that, beyond the pleasure of meeting 
our honored instructor and testifying our regard for him and 
his work, it might be possible to have some enduring memorial 
of this interesting occasion, or at least that some good and 
permanent influence might go forth from our meeting to-day. 
I don't know what it should be, but I have an idea that the 
most fitting thing we can do at present, in recognizing our 
obligation to the generation which preceded us, is to express 
our interest in the Free Public Library recently established, as 
being a sort of continuance of their educational work. I have 
accordingly prepared a paper intended to further that excellent 
object, which I beg leave to offer without remark in the form 
of a resolution, as follows : 

Resolved, That, regarding the establishment of free public 
libraries as the legitimate issue and needed supplement of our 
public school system, to which as former members of the Lan- 
casterian school under our honored instructor, Mr. John E. 
Lovell, we are so largely indebted, and rejoicing in the good 



68 

beginning in this city already made, we will heartily second 
all proper measures for the growth, enlargement and greatest 
success of the Free Public Library of New Haven, and trust it 
wnll become a worthy monument of the intelligence and pub- 
lic spirit of a community in which good learning, through the 
Hopkins Grammar School, the University and lastly our excel- 
lent graded schools, has always had a home. 

The resoliuion was unanimously adopted. 

Ex-Mayor H. G. Lewis responded to the call of the chair- 
man, in words of hearty appreciation of Mr. Lovell and his 
work, and expressed the hope that a generous response would 
be made to the appeal of the committee for a fund in aid of 
the venerable and beloved instructor in his declining years. 
Addresses in the same strain were made by Lewis Warner of 
Northampton, Mass., Horace Mansfield, probably the oldest 
surviving pupil of Mr. Lovell, Edward E. Bradley, S. T. But- 
ton, an invited guest as superintendent of schools in New 
Haven, Nathaniel Niles of Brooklyn, N. Y., George H. Hurl- 
burt of Middletown, William H. Dougal, James G. English, 
Town Agent Reynolds, John G. Chapman, Henry W. Mans- 
field, Henry Mattoon, J. Lovell Smith and others. 

The exercises were interspersed with a poem by Charles G. 
Merriman of Westville, and familiar recitations from the United 
States Speaker, compiled by Mr. Lovell, and reminiscences of 
Lancasterian school days by Edward C. Beecher, Wooster A. 
Ensign, E. R. Whiting and George Sherman. With a song 
composed for the occasion to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne " by 
B. W. Jepson, this remarkable meeting Avas brought to a close. 

The committee under whose direction this celebration was 
inaugurated and conducted, consisting of Messrs. John C. 
Bradley, Charles G. ^Nlerriman, Augustus E. Lines, William 
W. White, Henry Peck, Henry W. Mansfield and Chas. W. 
Allen was instructed to procure a photograph of Mr. Lovell, so 
that all who wish to possess a memorial of their old school- 
master may be gratified, and to take measures for forming a 
Lancasterian School Association. Both of these instructions 
were promptly attended to. The association was formed on 
the loth of May, and an effort will be made to ascertain and 
publish a full list of the pupils of the school from the begin- 
ning, which will be a valuable contribution to the vital statistics 
of New Haven, as well as a permanent memorial of Mr. Lovell's 
long and useful service. 



Treasurer's Report. 



RECEIPTS. 



Order on Town Treasurer, . 
From H. P. Hubbard, 



,000.00 

2.82 $3,002.82 



EXPENSES. 

Bills Paid, Committee on Invitations, . . $ 75-50 

" " Military and Fire Dep't., 183.47 

" ' ■■"•'- ^^ — .<^».«<- 40.00 

" c^u^^i^ 100.00 

" Oration, Hall, etc., . 80.00 

" Dr4„t; „„A X3^A„^^ 200.73 

" i\/r,,^;^ ^.^ 750.00 

r-„__: 142.00 

52.00 

5-00 

32.87 



Civic Societies, 
Schools, 

Oration, Hall, etc.. 
Medals and Memorials, 
Printing and Badges, 
Music, etc., 
Carriages, 
Lancasterian School, 

" National Salute, .... 

" Indians 

" Secretary, ...... 

Due Committee on Publication, 

Balance to be returned to Town Treasurer, 



450.00 $2,365.69 



37-13 



ELI WHITNEY, JR., Treasurer. 

New Haven, June nth, 1888. 



; XfO^ 



s-6 



PRESS OF TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR. 



